EP REVIEW: Ofärder – Riket

Bringing together some of the finest musicians in Sweden’s fantastic black metal underground, RIKET are a band that make great, melodic death metal with a modern twist, resulting in a sound that is fresh but has a classic edge to it. Their debut EP, Avarter, set a fairly high bar for the band, combining a crisp, slick sound with a grimy, dirty side that really made for some intriguing and crushing death metal. Over four years since their debut, and with a revitalised line up, the band return with Ofärder a record that, in spite of not providing much in the way of progression in the band’s style, sees them trim a little of the fat from the production, making for a more polished and accessible sound.

Dödsdansen i Månskensnatten starts with some great, melodic guitars with a clean tone, which quickly gives way to an energetic and powerful piece of death metal with some excellent, catchy leads, tight, precise rhythms and feral, monstrous vocals, which give this song an intense, but incredibly memorable, feel that draws the listener in immediately, providing an impressive benchmark for the following two tracks to surpass. Livsgnistor för Dödens Fyrbåk, with its much punchier, focused sound, with the guitars, drums and bass creating a huge sound that is punctuated by slick lead hooks and bellicose, acidic vocals, which add a sharp, caustic edge to the much denser nature of the music.

Much like the previous track, there’s some variation when it comes to distortion, which results in a diverse and engrossing sound which ranges from robust, Thrash inspired grooves and decidedly more virtuosic, soaring moments that inject an epic side to the song. It’s a great, expansive slab of melodic death metal that works extremely well, building upon the sound even further. Mot Polen, with its dramatic opening motif and ethereal, airy guitar sound, manages to stand out for all the right reasons, despite being the records shortest offering. Utilising some brilliant vocals and imaginative guitar flourishes, this proves to be a lot more atmospheric and immersive than the first two tracks, with an magnificent guitar solo cementing this as the best track on the EP, and bringing the record to a close on what is easily its highest note.

The development that has occurred between this EP and the one that preceded it, Avarter, is not so much centred around style, as much of the actually tropes and flourishes that define the bands sound remain very much the same, but rather a tightening up of the production and sound. The overall production value is much sharper, shedding much of the dirty, crusty edge of their debut, with a wider range of tones being brought into play, which gives this a slightly more varied and immersive feel. With a few minor tweaks to their style, and a little more of that atmospheric, eclectic sound that has slowly begun to creep in on this record, RIKET could very well establish themselves as one of the more interesting and memorable death metal acts to come out of Sweden since the turn of the century.

Rating: 8/10

Ofärder is out now via ViciSolum Productions.

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