Naglfar return with a vengeance to reap the furious "Harvest" of a storm sown more than ten years ago with the release of their debut "Vittra" in 1995, which quickly became an immortal classic of the Swedish black metal scene.
"Harvest" betrays all the tell tale signs of their original sound in unholy alliance with the massive thrust of later years. True to the Swedish formula of bringing the harsh bleakness of the black style together with the technical prowess and high-speed assault of death metal, Naglfar have created another masterpiece of their genre.
This is the album every fan of Swedish black metal has spend years waiting for: An abundance of icy harmonies and epic melodies swirls out of the skilled fingers of those magicians of the strings Andreas Nilsson and Marcus "Vargher" Norman. Subtle keyboard sounds create a sense of vast spaces and endless vistas. Whipped into frenzy by Mattias Grahn's relentless pounding of his drums front-man Kristoffer W. Olivius adds his own raucous chords to this cyclone of musical destruction. The dark charismatic singer spits his utterly misanthropic lyrics with venomous vocals straight into the face of mankind. Yet all their fury is shrouded into an uncanny majestic beauty that delights and shocks at the same time. Yes, Naglfar have truly returned to the gut-felt glory of "Vittra", but on "Harvest" they have the experienced maturity to get it right.
Naglfar have gone to extremes to achieve their blasphemous aims and get into the suitable state of mind. Withdrawing themselves into the sombre and brooding forests surrounding their northern Swedish hometown of Umeå, the band isolated itself for weeks. While the rest of Europe was experiencing an unprecedented warm start into winter-time, up north the branches of the trees were ladden with snow and glittering ice covered the tracks around the bands studios. With wolves howling in the distance, unpleasant encounters with bears being a real danger and giant elks ambling through the woods Naglfar found that rare spark of inspiration, which sets apart a good album from a brilliant one.
"Harvest" grips the listener firmly into its jaws and never lets loose. Capturing the imagination by a black romantic atmospheric, the Swedes engrave hooklines
deeply into the brain and echoes of their sparkling melodies return to haunt for days. All this despite the new albums fierceness and savage brutality. "Harvest" is not for the meek nor the weak. It is a statement of hatred and disgust towards humanity.
To master this extreme level of musicianship Naglfar used years to prepare and had to overcome a number of serious obstacles. The very existence of the band hung in the balance when founding member and charismatic Jens Rydén decided to depart for Stockholm for educational reasons. Luckily a natural replacement was quickly found in the person of bass-player Kristoffer W. Olivius, who had already proved his vocal merits with black metal extremists Setherial. Rapidly gaining experience on a number of tours and festival appearances around the globe, Kristoffer has now succeeded in fully gaining the fans acceptance for his own pitch-black attitude towards dominating that microphone at the stage-front. Another barrier to break was the bands apparent lack of ambition during their early days. It took the band nearly three years to come up with a follow-up to their black-blockbuster "Vittra". "Diabolical" (1998) also saw a slight but decisive change of style putting more emphasis on the death metal parts. This did not go down well with all their first followers, but gained them a new audience at the same time. Despite a successful tour as co-headliner with Deicide the bands goes into hibernation again. This time it takes four years, before Naglfar return with the MCD "Ex Inferis" (2002). A change in line-up has meanwhile introduced Bewitched-guitarist Marcus "Vargher" Norman as a new member. He immediatly breathes new life into the sleeping giant. In spring 2003 "Sheol" sees the light of day and starts to claw at it with black thrashing and a catchy riffing, which mark the bands return to darker sounds. Just two years later "Pariah" (2005) recaptures the fierce spirit of Naglfar's early days even stronger, unleashing a thundering steel-inferno of razorblade-guitars.
Now Naglfar have come full circle: "Harvest" puts the band firmly back on the throne of Swedish black metal. Whether you fall to fierce onslaught of ""The Darkest Road" or get entranced by the majestic melodies of the epic title-track "Harvest" you will feel the black magic of the old days returning with the added power of years of musicianship gained. It takes no great prophet to predict, that Naglfar will finally reap the long deserved success with this album: "Harvest".