VALKYRJA
"The Antagonist's Fire"
World Terror Committee, 2013.
Swedish Black metal act Valkyrja continues with their path of Destruction, Mayhem and Chaos they gave the world with "Contamination" the Massacre continues with "The Antagonist's Fire"
I really enjoyed so much "Contamination" so i was actually prepared for this and definitely i am very pleased with this release. More mature song writing and brutal as ever!!! I remember reading many years ago a note regarding the similarities in between Entombed and Dismember and Fred (Dismember) said "We have the same influences and we record our albums at the same studio, that is why we sound similar". This is the same case of the multiple comparisons between Valkyrja and Watain but in fact i can't tell if Valkyrja might be influenced by Watain in that case we should ask them. What i think Valkyrja is trying to do in this new album "The Antagonist's Fire" is just that, to find their own sound and to stop this pull and push regarding the similarities and if by any chance they are inspired by Watain its clearly they are a more brutal and extreme version of them and ten times improved. What the singer A.L. should consider its to change his vocal stlye, otherwise he will be called the copycat of Erik from Watain forever.
The sound of the new album i could say its just a bit more raw compared to "Contamination" but i guess this must be like that, its Black Metal. Necromorbus studio is a studio which has a very clean and polished sound all the time so i am happy that they managed to make it sound a bit different than the usual Necromorbus recordings. Nice and melodic guitar solos a la Dissection pretty much all over the record, sometimes songs like "Season of Rot" reminded me the rage of Marduk. The drumming of J. Wallgren just amazing!! (hands bow)
This time they changed label from Metal Blade Records to a more underground label W-T-C from Germany, this makes me wonder if something happened? because Metal Blade Records has a bigger distribution and money of course.
Awesome album!!! if you are into great Swedish Black Metal come and get it!
Points: 4.5 of 5
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVhNO6XGTyE