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Band: Norse
Album title: The Divine Light Of A New Sun
Release date: 25 May 2017
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Tracklist:
01. Supreme Vertical Ascent
02. Drowned By Hope
03. Telum Vitae
04. The Divine Light Of A New Sun
05. Exitus
06. Synapses Spun As Silk
07. Sandarkan
08. Arriving In Peace, Pregnant With War
09. Cyclic
There's no doubt that Australia is one of the top countries in the world's metal scene when it comes to innovative and interesting black metal, and Norse is absolutely one of this kind of bands. The band was formed in 2005 and has now released their third full-length album entitled, The Divine Light Of A New Sun via the growing Indian label Transcending Obscurity Records. Adric Ryan (ADR) is the mysterious demon behind the bass, vocals and lyrics since 2014, when Norse released Pest, a unique EP which enthused the extreme metal world with harsh and dissonant black metal. Forge is responsible for all the other instruments and composition. Norse is a futuristic band so to speak, that pushes the boundaries of modernity and transcend the genre with a unique atmosphere. The new album is nothing but another surprising progression of the last work released in 2014. In fact, the band never failed to surprise and brings up with each new work a different kind of metal, keeping the forefront of their proposal.
The Divine Light Of A New Sun, in the first minutes gave me a weird sensation, uncomfortable, sounded as something was out of place. But while the first track, "Supreme Vertical Ascent" progressed, I found an intelligent and refined black metal piece, and then all the subsequent tracks unfolded in an original, haunted, lethal and somber way. The album is full of unusually structured riffs. The Divine Light Of A New Sun offers us nine surprising tracks loaded with a dark and sweeping atmosphere.
Norse is ahead of our time, they show me that the unpredictability can be explored with mastery. The album is all about a technical dissonance through atypical and corrupted riffs with these inhuman vocals, a demon for sure. The powerful catch that this vocals can grab are impressive. Maybe because throughout the almost uncontrollable chaos of the music it remains uniformed. Norse walk also in the death metal territory, exploring here and there a few tones almost like Morbid Angel, I said almost...
My favorite tracks are "Drowned By Hope", "Telum Vitae", "The Divine Light Of A New Sun" and "Exitus". "Telum Vitae", the second track I mentioned is passionate because the bass plays like a heartbeat and yes, the other instruments are quite different from those that I'm usually listening on a daily basis. In "Exitus" the drums seem like it will explode with everything at any time, a guitar melody is always quite dissonant with intriguing melodic riffs from time to time. The song moves smoothly and goes subtly changing from a visceral note to an almost tribal sound.
We are entering the second half of the year and through my hands passed over 40 new interesting black metal albums. But a lot more has been released and still will be. Certainly, a lot of good albums will still come to be part of a brilliant collection of black metal from 2017. But not many of them are showing such a level of modernism like Norse, which does not fail to present all black metal waves in a single work and still creating a dissonant chaos of epic proportions. For fans of something that challenges the senses, I present you, Norse, the future of black metal.
Review written by: Felin Frost
Rating: 8,5/10
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