Black metal is fast: blast beats, howling winds, shrieking demons. Doom metal is slow: down-tuned riffs, horrors of R’lyeh, clouds of weed smoke. You wouldn’t think those two things would blend too well, now, would you? Well, they actually can create some pretty great music if blended in the right way, but it’s a balance that’s tricky to maintain for a long time. Most bands just end up going for one or the other.
German duo Helrunar has decided to experiment with the slower elements of doom/death with their fourth full-length, Niederkunfft. The style is a big change from their last work, the double album Sól, which had a much more black/pagan feeling to it. This time around, the band has taken a far darker, grimier approach, throwing out almost all of the black metal elements they used to employ. It’s only partially successful. Helrunar’s biggest fault…
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