VREID - Solverv
November 10, 2015, 8 years ago
(Indie Recordings)
On its sixth album, Solverv (‘Solstices’, in English), Vreid continues to execute some of the most vital black metal of the last several years, this group not straying far from traditional templates but doing the subgenre justice by writing at very high levels. Which should come as no surprise: Vreid is made up of former Windir members who decided to carry on after Windir frontman Valfar died in an intense snow storm in a secluded part of Norway in 2004, and Windir is among black metal’s most underrated groups, especially circa the 1184 and Likferd records.
Solverv takes Windir’s emphasis on strong songwriting and then injects a new immediacy that makes Solverv extremely listenable, this album engaging from first listen and living up to Vreid’s legacy, which includes a Norwegian Grammy nomination. Which also should come as no surprise, when you consider how Vreid’s members have seemingly only conceived well-articulated, and well-received, records, which certainly includes Solverv. In an era where black metal has been choked by interchangeable darkclones and bands that only, like, last week discovered De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Vreid continues to put forth a damnation that is real, revealing and revelatory (or, “dead, dying and dying to be dead”, as Entombed would say).
