Blodsgard

Solve Et Coagula
Self-released 2011

Norway continues to export their stylistic expression of black metal unabated after all these years and the latest four song EP from Blodsgard serves to reinforce this point.  The first track, Pakallelsen, rumbles to life with relentless double bass before flying into a blasting passage of those unmistakable Nordic melodies.  Disharmonic angles pierce the song's structure like glimmering icicles.  Sjeler Vil Brenne is more of a focused exploration of midtempo brooding black metal not unlike Gorgoroth at their most reserved.  Then the song erupts into a blizzard of freezing melodies, the drums are frantically paced as the track covers your stereo in frost.  The bombastic deep bass drums add emphasis of power and brutality to the sawing guitar passages and sweeping blast sections on Mentalt Minefelt.  The final track Kaoskonstruksjon begins with a swirling tempest of drums before heading full throttle into icy winds of black metal riffing.  The calm, distant melody fades to reveal a meaty bass line and dissonant guitars that charge into galloping drum sections and furious whirlwinds of icy riffs that bring to mind Pure Holocaust era Immortal.  Blodsgard confirms that there is still black blood through the arctic heart of True Norwegian black metal.  On Solve Et Coagula its essence lives on.