Tuesday 17 February 2015

Norse - Pest (CD Review)


01.Encoded Weakness
02.Disarmed, Toothless, Weak
03.Pest
04.True Insignificance
05.Irradiator
06.Aimless


ADR (Vocals/Bass)
Forge (Drums/Guitar)

Shayne Querruel (Session/Live Guitars)
S. Maher (Session/Live Guitars)
Marcus Bastiaanse (Session/Live Bass)



Austrailian band Norse began in 2006 with 7 years of turmoil, member changes and conflict, with Forge (drums) at the core. At Norse' heart lies experimentation and innovation, which is driving force behind each album. Consistently pushing boundaries and showcasing the bands unique ideologies, Norse is not interested in genres or trends but creating unique music and atmospheres.



'Encoded Weakness' is a strange and wonderful mix of styles and ideas, some traditional elements of extreme metal blended with avant-garde noise and drone, add to this screamed and spoken vocals and you have a rare example of a band really pushing forward.

'Pest' is a little more restrained, this one has more in common with the doom genre, slow pounding and atmospheric.

Then comes 'True Insignificance' a full on extreme/death metal tirade of instruments and screams, reminds me of early Anaal Nathrakh.

Dispite the drums being stuck on full speed times infinity, the overall feeling you get from 'Irradiator' is one of a slow and gloomy black metal style, this due mainly to the guitarwork.

Finally 'Aimless' opens with some dark synth then falls into this nightmare world of strange noise and extreme metal, before ending back with more dark synthwork.

This kind of music has always been of intrest to me, any band can just play straight forward metal (any sub genre of your choice) but this band like a few others like to play around with what they can do and create a kind of musical artform, though it may be a hellish noise to many it is clever and well thoughout, intense and intresting.

Rating 10/10
For fans of: Anaal Nathrakh, Axis Of Perdition, Sunn 0))), Blut Aus Nord, Aborym, Ulver

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