The second half of Nord… is, in my opinion, much more flawless and perfect than the first. The songs were probably made with a certain eye towards the overall structure rather than towards somehow fitting different movements together to make a song. ‘I Nattens Famn’, track four, is the most standard of the last three songs—it has no obvious imperfections, yet at the same time isn’t brilliantly inspired. The penultimate track, ‘För Dem Mitt Blod’ (which happens to be my personal favourite), opens with a chaotic melody and some fancy drum movements. Further into the song Setherial breaks into some swashbuckling riffs (no, don’t run) backed by fantastic vocals. The guitar in this song, I believe, holds the more energy than anywhere else on the disc. The track ends suddenly, and ‘I Skuggors Dunkla Sken’, the final tune, finishes everything off with a tasteful amount of brutality. One riff Setherial introduces sounds rather like something out of the Gothenburg style, but it works well enough. The band permits another bare acoustic passage with the sound of a howling wind in the background, but again I would have preferred it was extended. Instead the band quickly adds the other instruments again and overlays clean vocals onto the mix. It works nicely enough, and the fact that a potentially cold and deadening section of the song was squandered is more than made up for with the increasing viciousness towards the end of the song. The next few sections have a monstrous and larger-than-life feel, and the song ends with a repetition of the acoustic movement; of all the tracks on the recording, this one is the most dynamic and interesting.

I noticed people are much more quick to praise Nord… as a whole than any one song in particular. This points to what I think is the recording’s one problem: it’s musical monotony. It doesn’t lag really, but the songs are very similar in both the devices they employ and in their structure. Setherial seems to be overeager in their use of every instrument, so that when they need to make a powerful impact they have no way of increasing the intensity. All six of the tracks on the album open in the same, heavy way with no variety. On top of all this it’s hard listening to the album when you realize how much Setherial has stylistically mutated from their musical roots (they seem willing to imitate Satyricon and Emperor in every respect…). These, however, are minor infractions when judging the recording; if you are like me and are ever hungry for more brilliance in the vein of Dark Medieval Times and In The Nightside Eclipse, put Nord… on and enjoy.

The artwork, if you care, I find quite lovely; the primarily monochromatic cover is somewhat reminiscent of the (yes, you guessed it) In The Nightside Eclipse cover.

8/10

Azaras.