(Andy Synn is here to tell you whether to grab an umbrella, or just run for cover, when the new album from Krigsgrav arrives this Friday)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but… sometimes it seems like we spend most of our time here at NCS playing catch-up.
But the key word there is “most”.
You see, while it’s not easy to stay on top of all the new releases every week (although Islander does a damn good job of at least keeping track of new songs and/or album announcements) we do still manage to at least get a few reviews out each month in advance of their respective release dates.
And when the band is an old friend of the blog – figuratively speaking – like Krigsgrav (whose new album is out this Friday) we try to make a special effort to deliver our verdict in a more timely manner.
If you’re not familiar with Krigsgrav‘s previous work then, in my opinion at least, the best place to get started would be with 2023’s career-defining Fires in the Fall (which I reviewed myself here), an album which, in my documented opinion at least, served as the perfect fusion and balance between their Black Metal and Melodic Death Metal sides (with a nice helping of gorgeous gloom for extra flavour).
On Stormcaller, however, that balance has shifted even more towards favouring the Insomnium-esque side of their sound (just take a listen to the heroic strains of instant-classic opener “Huntress of the Fire Moon”) with the result being an album that – to my ears at least – sacrifices a little bit of their previous uniqueness but, thankfully, still maintains that same irrepressible verve and vigour which defined their previous work(s).
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a fair bit of Dissection (“Stormcaller”) and Agalloch (“Bay of the Barghest”) influence to be found – and some of the album’s best moments (such as the notably darker and more morose groove ‘n’ gallop of “None Shall Remember Your Name”) are the ones which successfully meld all these inputs and influences into a form which more closely reflects Krigsgrav‘s signature hybrid sound – but it’s impossible to fully ignore this obvious shift towards a more Finnish-forward approach.
The danger of this, of course – as we’ve seen with a lot of other bands over the years (naming no names) – is that as good as the music is (and it certainly is, have no doubt about that) Insomnium are a band who cast a very long shadow, one which it’s very hard for most bands to escape… and I’m not sure that Krigsgrav have here either.
That being said, it would be a mistake to approach Stormcaller with the idea that this is an album trying to change the world or reinvent the wheel… because what it’s really trying to do is simply make you feel, and in that regard it is a pretty resounding success (with, perhaps, one or two exceptions).
And the reason it’s so successful at tugging on your heartstrings and getting your blood pumping is largely due to the plethora of soaring melodic hooks scattered across these eight tracks, with the legendary leads of the aforementioned “Huntress of the Fire Moon”, the nimble, dancing notes of “Stormcaller”, and the winding threads of moody melancholy laced throughout “Ghosts” all being particularly notable (and especially irresistible).
Sure, there’s the occasional track which doesn’t quite rise to its full potential – as much as I enjoyed “Twilight Fell” on first listen over time it’s started to feel just a little too familiar, while “The Tonic of Wilderness” (despite being one of the few tracks on the album to feature a flash of clean-sung colour) ultimately doesn’t leave much of a lasting impression – but when the clouds begin to gather and the lightning starts to strike (captivating closer “Womb-Death-Dawn” being probably the most demanding, but also most outstanding, track of the entire record) it’s difficult, if not impossible, to resist the call of this particular storm.