icelandic black metal

AUÐN premiere new song “Verður von að bráð”

Icelandic black metal formation AUÐN are now premiering the third and final new single of their upcoming record ‘Vökudraumsins fangi’. The track “Verður von að bráð” is streaming here:

The video was created by Andri Björn Birgisson.

The band’s third full length will be released on October 30th. Pre-orders are still available in the Season of Mist shop HERE.
 AUÐN comment on the track: “We present to you the third single from our upcoming album ‘Vökudraumsins fangi’. In these premieres we wanted to showcase as many different elements as possible. This song in some ways treads uncharted  territory for us as we welcome the more catchy driven aspects of heavy music into our world of melancholy and grief ridden soundscapes. ‘Verður von að bráð’ is an unforgiving journey into the vast frozen wastes of the unknown and the euphoric feeling when the cold takes a hold of you when you’ve reached the point of no return, when you forsake all logic and give into the welcoming embrace of death.”

The cover artwork of ‘Vökudraumsins fangi’ was created by Mýrmann and can be viewed below, together with the track list. 

Tracklist
1. Einn um alla tíð (08:15)
2. Eldborg (04:08)
3. Birtan hugann brennir (05:33)
4. Verður von að bráð (05:50)
5. Drepsótt (03:16)
6. Næðir um (05:03)
7. Horfin mér (06:42)
8. Á himin stara (03:47)
9. Ljóstýra (05:54)
10. Vökudraumsins fangi (06:43)

As the country’s vibrant black metal scene has proven, Iceland can be a beautiful and sinister place where furious elements rage teaching fear but also inspiring human creativity. Emphasizing melodies rather than dissonance and approaching their music from a dramatic, classical black metal angle, AUÐN deliver another mesmerizing piece of art with ‘Vökudraumsins fangi’.

Hailing from the village of Hveragerði in the south of Iceland, AUÐN deliver haunting melodies and beautifully frozen atmospheres – as opposed to the jarring and caustic blunt force trauma that has brought this remote place in the Northern Atlantic to the black metal forefront.

Founded in 2010, AUÐN‘s talent was quick to be recognized. After the release of the self-titled debut, the band got invited to Iceland’s main metal event, the Eistnaflug Festival. They participated and won the local Wacken Metal Battle contest in 2016, while making it to the top three during the infamous Wacken Open Air festival itself. Shows at the prestigious Inferno and Roadburn festivals followed in 2017.  

The second full-length, ‘Farvegir Fyrndar’ was released in November 2017, continuing the band’s fast ascent. Highly praised by the international metal press, the sophomore record reached back to a more classic second-generation black metal approach combined with a sense of elegance and melancholy that one can feel while dwelling among the bleak, extraordinary landscapes of the island.

The Icelanders embarked on European tours with label mates GAAHL’S WYRD in 2017 and THE GREAT OLD ONES (2017 and 2018) and captivated festival audiences at the biggest European fests, such as Copenhell, Summer Breeze Open Air, Eurosonic Noorderslag, Roskilde, Eindhoven Metal Meeting and more.

Returning with ‘Vökudraumsins fangi’, AUÐN explore new soundscapes and push their music to new heights, thereby setting themselves further apart from their Icelandic contemporaries. The six piece draws inspirations from their natural surroundings, but also chart the territory of the mind. The album title literally translates to ‘prisoner of the daydream’, but rather refers to a perpetual state of delusion of a life that never took place.

Join AUÐN while traversing the blurred lines between reality and the supernatural and the otherworldly sceneries of their native Iceland. 

Recording studio: Sundlaugin Studio

Producer / sound engineer: Stephen Lockhart of Studio Emissary

Mixed and mastered: Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios

Recording line-up:
Andri Björn Birgisson – Guitars
Aðalsteinn Magnússon – Guitars and vocals
Hjalti Sveinsson – Vocals
Hjálmar Gylfason – Guitars
Matthías Hlifar Mogensen – Bass and guitars
Sigurður Kjartan Pálsson – Drums

Guest musicians:
Arnaldur Ingi Jónsson – Hammond organ on “Næðir um “and “Horfin mér”
Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson – Grand piano & Mellotron on “Næðir um” and “Vökudraumsins fangi”

Cover artwork: Mýrmann


Links:
https://www.facebook.com/audnofficial/
https://audnofficial.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/audnofficial/

SÓLSTAFIR premiere new music video for “Her Fall From Grace”

Icelandic post rock outfit SÓLSTAFIR are now premiering a brand new music video for the song “Her Fall From Grace”. Watch the video here:

Vocalist Aðalbjörn Tryggvason comments: “We present to you the next single from our upcoming album “Endless Twilight of Codependent Love” entitled, “Her Fall From Grace”. We hope you enjoy it and take from it what you need.”

The track is taken from the band’s upcoming record ‘Endless Twilight of Codependent Love’, which will be released on November 6. Pre-orders are available in the Season of Mist shop HERE.


1. Akkeri (10:10)
2. Drýsill (08:52)
3. Rökkur (07:06)
4. Her Fall From Grace (06:36)
5. Dionysus (05:31)
6. Til Moldar (04:29)
7. Alda Syndanna (04:30)
8. Or (06:58)
9. Úlfur (08:49)
      Picture by Gaui H.   A quarter of a century after singer/guitarist Aða
lbjörn “Addi” Tryggvason co-founded atmospheric Icelandic metal quartet Sólstafir, they continue to follow their cardinal rule – that there are no rules. For them, writing an epic 10-minute song without a traditional verse/chorus trade-off feels natural. While they have done two albums in English, he mainly sings in their native tongue and his vocals are as much an instrument as a vessel for words. Their videos equally showcase the band and their Icelandic world that they commune with.

And their music flows however it pleases. “Having been a metal band for a long time and gone through shoegaze, atmospheric black metal, and post rock, I just feel privileged being able to mix all my favorite genres and get away with it,” says Tryggvason.

In the world of Sólstafir, artists as varied as The Beatles, Kraftwerk, Darkthrone, Ennio Morricone, and Billy Corgan swirl inside their heads, and such influences seep into their musical ether. Funnily enough, the cover for the group’s latest album Endless Twilight of Codependent Love might remind one of a famous Smashing Pumpkins album cover.

Painted in watercolor by Johann Baptist Zwecker in 1864, The Lady of the Mountain is the female personification of Iceland. It was first published in a book of Icelandic folk tales but was never shown in public. A black and white woodblock replica by the artist is what Icelanders have known until recently when two citizens found the original hidden in a Welsh museum gallery where it had been in storage for a century. Now it is back home and adorning the cover of the new Sólstafir album.

“Everybody knows the image of the Lady of the Mountain,” declares Tryggvason. All of a sudden, the original pops up and it’s like, ‘Oh my god, these are the most beautiful colors I’ve ever seen. And why does it remind me of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness?’ So that’s purely accidental. When we saw this photo, we had to use it. It’s too beautiful.”

While early Sólstafir lyrics delved into Nordic mythology and critiques of organized religion, more recent songs explore their spiritual connection with nature, and lately, mental disorders ranging from depression to alcoholism and the taboo behind men in particular discussing those things for fear of being perceived weak.
 
“That’s the real darkness that you can’t see, but you can feel it and people around you can feel it,” explains Tryggvason. “Of course, there are serial killers and plagues and whatever through history. But in modern day life, that’s the true darkness around you. People kill themselves every day, and often people close to you who have been feeling so bad.”

He says the most personal song on Endless Twilight of Codependent Love is “Her Fall From Grace,” the lone track in English. It chronicles the pain of watching a loved one succumb to mental illness.

“It’s very sad when you love someone and you see them get sick,” muses Tryggvason. “Like Layne Staley said, ‘Slow suicide is no way to go.’ But you’re just watching on the audience bench, preparing for the phone call. ‘Hey man, Johnny’s dead.’ ‘All right, I knew Johnny was gonna die. I’ve been watching him in slow motion.’” He likens the experience to seeing a relative or parent be consumed by Alzheimer’s and turn into a different person than one remembers.

Although the band’s lyrics are predominately in Icelandic, that does not prevent outside listeners from appreciating the emotional power of their music. It has been said that many fans can feel his pain even if they do not overtly understand what he is singing about.

A beautiful moment in that regard occurred when Sólstafir played Bogota, Colombia in September 2017. It was the smallest show on their South American tour, and they presumed it would not be as lively. The 300 strong throng proved them wrong. “It felt like I was in Queen at Wembley Stadium,” Tryggvason recollects fondly. “They sang every goddamn word in Icelandic. How can you explain that?”

Such passionate reactions have not gone unnoticed in their homeland. Iceland picked Sólstafir to play a total of six events New York City, Seattle, and Toronto last fall called “Taste Of Iceland.” Tryggvason says the band enjoyed the event and their intimate industry showcases at Pianos (NYC) and Livenation (Toronto) during that same trip.

Counter-intuitive thinking has helped Sólstafir evolve and mature. The new track “Or” opens with a languid, bluesy feeling but gradually transforms into an angst-ridden, guitar-driven dirge. When they conjured their breakthrough song “Fjara” in 2011, the group feared its mellow nature might put off their longtime metal followers. Instead, they embraced it. That tune, along with the ambient, banjo-laden track “Ótta,” allowed the group to play both the Brutal Assault festival in the Czech Republic five years ago and then a family-friendly music event in the Netherlands the next weekend. The new rager “Dionysus” even features a return to their black metal roots that was not planned; the song just turned out that way over a year-long span.

“Our audience grew bigger and more diverse by us just being ourselves and doing nothing different really,” notes Tryggvason.

One of the joys for him and his bandmates – bassist Svavar “Svabbi” Austmann, guitarist Sæþór Maríus “Pjúddi” Sæþórsson, and newer drummer Hallgrímur Jón “Grimsi” Hallgrímsson, who contributed some lyrics this time out – is that their perception of how their new music will turn out never corresponds with reality. It is that unknown factor that keeps things exciting.

“You can never foresee band magic,” declares Tryggvason. “The whole purpose of this is cooking up magic. And if you’re cooking up magic with four or five weirdos, you can never foresee what’s going to happen. You can’t buy that. You have to live it or grow it.”

Recording line-up:
Aðalbjörn Tryggvason – Vocals, uitar
Sæþór M Sæþórsson – Guitar
Svavar Austmann – Bass
Hallgrímur Bárðdal – Drums

Recording: Sundlaugin Studio, Grótta
 
Mixing and mastering: Birgir Jón Birgirsson
 
www.solstafir.net
www.facebook.com/solstafirice
https://www.instagram.com/solstafir_official

Icelandic Black metal Formation Auðn release first new track “Eldborg”

Auðn release first new track “Eldborg”

Icelandic black metal formation AUÐN are now premiering the first track of their upcoming record ‘Vökudraumsins fangi’. The track “Eldborg” is streaming here:
The video was created by AUÐN‘s own Andri Björn Birgisson.

The band’s third full length will be released on October 30th. Pre-orders are now live in the Season of Mist shop HERE.

AUÐN comment: “It is with great pleasure that we unveil the first track from ‘Vökudraumsins fangi’. A track that embodies Iceland’s furious awe and fear inducing pits of fire. These ever looming harbingers of destruction have countless faces, this is ‘Eldborg’.”
The cover artwork of ‘Vökudraumsins fangi’ was created by Mýrmann and can be viewed below, together with the track list. 
Tracklist
1. Einn um alla tíð (08:15)
2. Eldborg (04:08)
3. Birtan hugann brennir (05:33)
4. Verður von að bráð (05:50)
5. Drepsótt (03:16)
6. Næðir um (05:03)
7. Horfin mér (06:42)
8. Á himin stara (03:47)
9. Ljóstýra (05:54)
10. Vökudraumsins fangi (06:43)
As the country’s vibrant black metal scene has proven, Iceland can be a beautiful and sinister place where furious elements rage teaching fear but also inspiring human creativity. Emphasizing melodies rather than dissonance and approaching their music from a dramatic, classical black metal angle, AUÐN deliver another mesmerizing piece of art with ‘Vökudraumsins fangi’.

Hailing from the village of Hveragerði in the south of Iceland, AUÐN deliver haunting melodies and beautifully frozen atmospheres – as opposed to the jarring and caustic blunt force trauma that has brought this remote place in the Northern Atlantic to the black metal forefront.
 
Founded in 2010, AUÐN‘s talent was quick to be recognized. After the release of the self-titled debut, the band got invited to Iceland’s main metal event, the Eistnaflug Festival. They participated and won the local Wacken Metal Battle contest in 2016, while making it to the top three during the infamous Wacken Open Air festival itself. Shows at the prestigious Inferno and Roadburn festivals followed in 2017.  
 
The second full-length, ‘Farvegir Fyrndar’ was released in November 2017, continuing the band’s fast ascent. Highly praised by the international metal press, the sophomore record reached back to a more classic second-generation black metal approach combined with a sense of elegance and melancholy that one can feel while dwelling among the bleak, extraordinary landscapes of the island.
 
The Icelanders embarked on European tours with label mates GAAHL’S WYRD in 2017 and THE GREAT OLD ONES (2017 and 2018) and captivated festival audiences at the biggest European fests, such as Copenhell, Summer Breeze Open Air, Eurosonic Noorderslag, Roskilde, Eindhoven Metal Meeting and more.
 
Returning with ‘Vökudraumsins fangi’, AUÐN explore new soundscapes and push their music to new heights, thereby setting themselves further apart from their Icelandic contemporaries. The six piece draws inspirations from their natural surroundings, but also chart the territory of the mind. The album title literally translates to ‘prisoner of the daydream’, but rather refers to a perpetual state of delusion of a life that never took place.
 
Join AUÐN while traversing the blurred lines between reality and the supernatural and the otherworldly sceneries of their native Iceland. 

Recording studio: Sundlaugin Studio
 
Producer / sound engineer: Stephen Lockhart of Studio Emissary
 
Mixed and mastered: Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios
 
Recording line-up:
Andri Björn Birgisson – Guitars
Aðalsteinn Magnússon – Guitars and vocals
Hjalti Sveinsson – Vocals
Hjálmar Gylfason – Guitars
Matthías Hlifar Mogensen – Bass and guitars
Sigurður Kjartan Pálsson – Drums
 
Guest musicians:
Arnaldur Ingi Jónsson – Hammond organ on “Næðir um “and “Horfin mér”
Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson – Grand piano & Mellotron on “Næðir um” and “Vökudraumsins fangi”
 
Cover artwork: Mýrmann
 
 
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/audnofficial/
https://audnofficial.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/audnofficial/

Auðn enter Sundlaugin studios to record third full-length

Icelandic black metal sensation AUÐN have entered the studio to record their third full-length. The new record will be released in the second half of 2020 via Season of Mist. For more updates, follow the band on Facebook and Instagram.

AUÐN comment: “We have entered the famed studio ‘Sundlaugin’ with producer Stephen Lockhart of studio Emissary to record our third album. More details will soon emerge.”
The band’s previous record ‘Farvegir Fyrndar’ was released in November 2017 and can be heard here:
Line-up
Aðalsteinn Magnússon – Guitar
Andri Björn Birgisson – Guitar
Hjalti Sveinsson – Vocals
Hjálmar Gylfason – Guitar
Matthías Mogensen – Bass
Sigurður Kjartan Pálsson – Drums

Links:
www.facebook.com/audnofficial
www.instagram.com/audnofficial/

Helfró release stunning music video for “Afeitrun” and reveal album details

Icelandic black metal band HELFRÓ are now premiering the first song of their self titled debut album, which will be released on Season of Mist Underground Activists on April 24. The song “Afeitrun” is streaming here:
HELFRÓ comment: “We’re thrilled to present “Afeitrun”, an odyssey into the boundless and bare wastelands of cold and despair”.

The video was filmed in the beautiful, frozen landscapes of Iceland by Void Revelations. Pre-orders are available now. Order your copy HERE.
The cover artwork was created by View from the Coffin and can be viewed below, together with the tracklist.
Tracklist
1. Afeitrun (05:40)
2. Ávöxtur af rotnu tré    (04:19)
3. Eldhjarta (03:53)
4. Þrátt fyrir brennandi vilja (04:17)
5. Þegn hinna stundlegu harma (03:49)
6. Hin forboðna alsæla (04:28)
7. Katrín (05:20)
8. Musteri agans (04:50)
Total: 0:36:36
Slithering in the cauldron that is the Icelandic black metal scene, HELFRÓ emerges with fury and competence rarely seen. Written by Ragnar and arranged by Símon, a debut album has been recorded with unforgiving precision and profound musicianship. It is meant to channel the hopeless and empty feelings that have been concentrated from the frozen wastelands from which the band emerges. Shrilling guitarwork and unforgiving blast beats weave together a soundscape that rarely leaves room for thought. It is an aural attack, seducing the listener to the barren and desolate black sands where the realization of futility and loneliness sets in heavier than anywhere else. The band members, veterans in extreme music, have created this project as an audio representation of the endless arctic darkness, and with pride present the self titled first offering: „Helfró“.

Line-up:
Ragnar S: Composition, drums, vocals.
Símon Þ: Arrangements, guitars, bass, vocals.


Recording studio: Studio Emissary
Producer / sound engineer: Stephen Lockhart / Simon Þ.
Mixing studio and engineer: Stephen Lockhart
Mastering studio and engineer: Stephen Lockhart

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/HelfroIce/
https://www.instagram.com/helfromusic/

Sólstafir release stunning video for “Bláfjall”

SÓLSTAFIR are now premiering a stunning new video for the track “Bláfjall”, taken from their latest released full-length ‘Berdreyminn’. The video is now streaming here:
SÓLSTAFIR comment: “Here it is, our 3rd video by the almighty Bowen Staines. After we did our last video with Bowen, “Lágnætti” we talked about for years to make another video together. As usual, adventures are like magnets when we join up forces, and this one was no different. We are super proud of the result, and yet again, Bowen shows that he is the master of this game. Enjoy Bláfjall.”
Director Bowen Staines ads to the story: “‘Bláfjall’ was produced and filmed in Iceland from August – October 2018, and edited until April 2019 at the Don’t Panic Films studio in Massachusetts. While originally shot in 4K, the finished product was then scanned in its entirety onto 35mm film. ‘Bláfjall’ tells the story of a mind overtaken with grief, and the mental gymnastics often employed to circumvent grief in order to avoid confronting it. 

Everyone has their secret sorrows which the world knows not; wounds that never show on the body. In ’Bláfjall’, these wounds take the form of memories relived in the present, yet altered by the knowledge of what will come in the future. If grief were sentient, it would attack these memories with the voracity of a virus slowly destroying a computer hard drive, or an illness ravaging a body. 

Pre-production for ‘Bláfjall’ started almost two years ago, and the first day of principal photography began in Hvalfjörður, Southwest Iceland. Predictably, it was so windy (a 115kg dolly track blew over), that I had to rewrite that day’s five-page shotlist in the trunk of Addis’s Jeep.

The rest of the video came together wonderfully, thanks to our cast of Flosi Þorgeirsson (HAM, Glerakur), Bella Morgan, Palli Banine, and Minerva Geirdal. The only other notable thing that happened during this production were the days leading up to crashing that infamous Mercedes. 

The car was an automatic, and the transmission slipped like butter. The momentum from the slightest forward acceleration, say, at a stoplight, would send the gearshift flying back into first gear, and the engine redlining; there is no sound quite like doing 40 on the highway in first gear. I was heading to pick up Flosi in Reykjavík, when suddenly I was doing 60kph in reverse while still going forwards, with the whole car transforming into an industrial noise album. 

The day we filmed the crash, we’d spent hours lining the car up, bracing the steering wheel properly, and closing the roads. It looked like it was dead-on, and then it wasn’t. It missed the other car by centimeters, veered off the road, hit an embankment on the side of a someone’s driveway, cleared the entire driveway, went through a fence, and crashed into a rock in front of a horse stable. The next try was dead-on. 

A heartfelt ‘Thank You’ to everyone who was involved with the making of Sólstafir’s ‘Bláfjall’. To the guys in the band: thank you for trusting me so unconditionally, and allowing me to tell this story with your music. As always, it is a true pleasure to create with you.

We hope that you enjoy watching this as much as we enjoyed making it. 
Takk fyrir okkur.”

Video credits
Don’t Panic Iceland: Bowen Staines SOLSTAFIR
20 Jul 19 Laukaa (FI) John Smith
10 Aug 19 Schlotheim (DE) Party.San 2019
Track-list 1. Silfur-Refur (6:54)
2. Ísafold (4:59)
3. Hula (7:07)
4. Nárós (7:23)
5. Hvít Sæng (7:22)
6. Dýrafjörður (7:32)
7. Ambátt (8:08)
8. Bláfjall (8:00)
Music will always be inspired by the environment in which it is created. With its incredible array of highly diverse landscapes ranging from white glaciers via volcanic bizarreness, moss-green bubble-fields, deep fjords, and frost-cracked mountains to black beaches, Iceland has shaped a host of astonishingly original and fiercely individual bands such as SIGUR RÓS, BJÖRK, and SÓLSTAFIR.
 
SÓLSTAFIR embody the ever-turning wheel of seasons with their shifting light, darkness, and colours, extreme Northern climate, the stark contrasts, the closeness of beauty and deadly forces of nature, the impressive sceneries that have the bones of ancient gods enshrined in them like hardly any other band in every aspect of their existence.
 
SÓLSTAFIR are not like any other band. Their latest album, ‘Berdreyminn’ underscores this statement. As its title “a dreamer of forthcoming events” aptly describes, the four Icelanders have taken their already impressive evolution one step further. The band has continued to amalgamate haunting melodies, psychedelic phases, as well as strong undercurrents of classic rock and hard rock with echoes of their metal past. Yet SÓLSTAFIR‘s focus is not on style but pure emotion. ‘Berdreyminn’ is eclectic by a conscious choice to make feelings audible and transform taste as well as texture to sound. Genre borders are not broken but simply ignored. Musical influences are gathered from a wide range of sources, re-arranged, and woven into new patterns.  Melancholy, longing, anger, joy, pleasure, pain, and other emotions are fulling this album. 
 
Despite leaning clearly towards an expression that can be described as rock today, SÓLSTAFIR have their roots in metal as their debut full-length ‘Í Blóði og Anda’ (2002), which translates as “In Blood and Spirit” still witnesses. Instead of today’s Icelandic gravel throated siren chants, frontman Aðalbjörn Tryggvason spat forth vitriolic crusty vocals and all strings were forged with black metal. Already their next albums ‘Masterpiece of Bitterness’ (2005) and ‘Köld’ (2009) marked stations of a continuous evolution. SÓLSTAFIR went further along their solitary path and obviously left any categorising box with the ground-breaking follow-ups ‘Svartir Sandar’ (2011) and ‘Ótta’ (2014), which received high critical acclaim and attracted new fans in equal measure, while managing the difficult feat of keeping most of their earlier following too.
 
SÓLSTAFIR have set sails to new horizons with ‘Berdreyminn’. Yet the Icelanders brought their home with them and the silhouette of their vessels remains easily recognisable. Welcome aboard on a new adventurous musical journey into uncharted territories. 
Line-up
Aðalbjörn Tryggvason: guitar, vocals
Svavar Austmann: bass
Sæþór Maríus Sæþórsson: guitar
Hallgrímur Jón Hallgrímsson: drums, backing vocals
 
Guest musicians
Brass, strings, and piano across the tracks
 
Recording: Sundlaugin Studio (IS), Birgir Jón Birgisson & Jaime Gomez Arellano
 
Mixing: Orgone Studio (UK), Jaime Gomez Arellano
 
Mastering: Sterling Mastering (US), Ted Jensen
 
Cover art: Adam Burke
 
www.solstafir.net
www.facebook.com/solstafirice

MISÞYRMING set release date for new NOEVDIA album

Today, Norma Evangelium Diaboli announces May 24th as the international release date for Misþyrming‘s highly anticipated second album, Algleymi.

Misþyrming hail from Reykjavík, Iceland. Since their formation in 2013, the band have put the Icelandic black metal scene on the international metal map, both with the sterling quality of their sparse-yet-momentous discography thus far as well as their spellbinding live performances across numerous festivals and tours of Europe. Although certain bands within that Icelandic black metal scene have been around slightly longer or have more prolific catalogs, it could be easily argued that Misþyrming are seen as Icelandic black metal’s leading light – or bringers of light, a veritable Lucifer made manifest in white-hot black metal flesh.

Much of this can be attributed to Misþyrming‘s debut album, Söngvar elds og óreiðu. Translated in English as “Songs of fire and chaos,” their debut album was aptly titled, and soon became a modern classic in the worldwide black metal scene, with its tentacles of influence eventually stretching beyond the underground. And understandably so, for its punishing and wrathful sound betrayed a uniquely melodic aspect that sacrificed no amount of infernal power so intrinsic to true black metal. As such, Söngvar elds og óreiðu landed 9th place on Noisey’s Top 100 albums of the year, outranking artists like their fellow Icelander Björk. The vinyl edition of Söngvar elds og óreiðusold out within two days and has been highly demanded by fans ever since, regardless of numerous repressings. In 2016, Metal Hammer – Europe’s biggest metal magazine – named Misþyrming as one of the Top 10 Icelandic bands.
But these accolades matter little, if at all, to Misþyrming. Ever restless but wisely patient in their creations, the full fruit of their artistic labor has now arrived with the stark and startlingly accomplished Algleymi. At once logically following from Söngvar elds og óreiðu whilst treading brave new paths, Misþyrming’s sophomore album is a kaleidoscopic worldwide of maverick black metal, Icelandic or otherwise. It retains for the relentless brutality of its debut predecessor while exhibiting a simultaneously taut and free-flowing muscularity. Similarly, the band’s bold melodicism has reached a grandiose new level here, as haunting atmospheres meld with properly anthemic elements, exhibiting space and shade with equal rapture. And that’s all to say nothing of the album’s production; recorded & mixed by the band at the Icelandic Black Metal HQ and mastered by the esteemed Jamie Gomez Arellano at Orgone Studios, Misþyrming here exhibit a swaggering professionalism that’s undeniably powerful and frankly unchallenged. From blasphemous ceremonies to a total rejection of humanity, Algleymi above all displays a maturity that safely evades the negative connotations otherwise associated with that word, especially within a black metal context.

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” and indeed do Misþyrming pursue that creed here – with a vengeance, unfettered and frightening. Adorned with cover art courtesy of the masterful Manuel Tinnemans,  Misþyrming have delivered another Great Work for the ages with Algleymi.

Full-album stream to be revealed during week of release. Preorder info can be found HERE at Norma Evangelium Diaboli‘s Bandcamp. 

Aforementioned cover art and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Misþyrming’s Algleymi
1. Orgia
2. Með svipur á lofti
3. Ísland, steingelda krummaskuð
4. Hælið
5. Og er haustið líður undir lok
6. Allt sem eitt sinn blómstraði
7. Alsæla
8. Algleymi
MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/Misthyrming