ALBUM REVIEW: Mot Ein Evig Ruin – Blodhemn

Being a black metal band in Norway must be a difficult task, as your music will inevitably be measured against the music that came out of the second wave in the 1990s. This ultimately means that only the best Norwegian black metal bands end up making a name for themselves outside of the underground. BLODHEMN is one such band. Since their debut demo, Logical Madness, saw the light of day back in 2008, BLODHEMN have gone from strength to strength, releasing one great record after another. Their latest, third full length comes out close to five years since the release of their critically acclaimed H7 record. Mot Ein Evig Ruin shows a band that are reaching their creative zenith, blending fast and furious thrash metal riffs with a far more dark and ominous take on black metal.

Ruin is a solid intro track, which slowly builds, with some great, thunderous drums starting things, off, quickly followed by some minimalist, eerie guitar lines, coupled with some haunting female vocals that really help to layer on the atmosphere thick. It’s a great way for BLODHEMN to set the listener up for the rest of Mot Ein Evig Ruin. Det Gjekk Ein Faen bursts out of the speakers at a blistering pace, with precise drumming patterns and dense, chugging guitars, which slowly but surely become much vaster and far more epic than the initial, thrashing motif that opens this track would suggest. There’s plenty of disjointed chords peppered throughout this track to help and throw some discordance into the mix, complementing the shrill, acidic howls of the vocals in their jarring quality. it’s a short, sharp shock of thrash inflected black metal that raises the bar significantly.

Dogennikt continues in much the same vein, with full sounding guitars racing forth at breakneck pace, backed up by robust and intricate drumming. The vocals range from feral screams to rich, sonorous clean passages, which add an almost Gothic edge to the song. There’s guitar riffs aplenty here, from tight and ferocious tremolos to dissonant, near progressive licks that give this song some variety for the listener to sink their teeth into. It’s a solid, energetic piece of music with a few more acerbic black metal parts inserted into the fray to make things interesting. Ostfront takes the emphasis away from fast and fierce thrash to mid paced, powerful black metal with lots of brilliant hard rock swagger, ultimately giving it a much more traditional black metal sound than what we’ve heard up until this point. The vocals soar over the music, sounding every bit as rabid as the music. BLODHEMN deliver razor sharp, visceral lead guitars, palpable rhythm guitars and bass that pack a punch, and steady, primal drum beats that give this song an underlying primitive aggression.

With Nordhavs Speil, BLODHEMN pick up where Ostfront left off, throwing in plenty of atmospheric flourishes and the crushing, speed-driven guitars that marked the first two songs. The grandiose atmosphere on this particular track is achieved through use of cleaner guitar tones and fuller chords, in somewhat restrained motifs that are steered forward by booming drums and dizzying, chaotic rhythm guitars. The vocals carve through the mix with ease, sitting, vicious and acidic, over the crunching sound of the guitars. The centrepiece of this track, however, is the hair-raising, expansive lead guitar hook that opens this song, creating a vast and monolithic sound that draws the listener in immediately. This, with only one or two notable exceptions, is the stand out track on Mot Ein Evig Ruin.

Uante Krefter I Fra Nord is one of those two exceptions. This is a grandiose, yet nonetheless monstrous, slab of bleak and foreboding black metal that possesses some of the most imaginative and memorable guitar performances on the whole of Mot Ein Evig Ruin. The drums, setting a machine gun like pace, rarely, if ever slow down throughout this song, adding a lot of amazing power to the song at numerous points. The guitars, likewise, are eclectic and catchy, shifting from gargantuan sounding sections to much more technical, melodic ones that sink their claws into the listener and don’t let go for the whole of this songs eight minute span. This is a true epic which ebbs and flows from the first note to the last, providing some of the best and most emotive performances on the whole of Mot Ein Evig Ruin.

Blodhemn- Dra te Helvete, Mot Ein Evig Ruin‘s penultimate song, is a powerful, energetic piece of black metal with some of the best lead guitar hooks on the whole record, something which elevates this song from just g=being a good song to a great one. This song has a palpable urgency and frenzied approach to it, which permeates every aspect of the song, from the scatter brained drumming to the rabid, hellish howl of the vocals. It’s got some incredibly solid, impressive rhythms and a foreboding, aggressive atmosphere that doesn’t let up throughout. It’s not Mot Ein Evig Ruin‘s best offering, but it is certainly a strong contender for the most ferocious song on Mot Ein Evig Ruin.

Mot Midnatt, the eighth and final song on Mot Ein Evig Ruin, is a driven, punishing track that is characterised by solid, impressive drumming, dense, dark guitars and some excellent vocals that add a great, acidic roar to the proceedings, and definitely help to elevate the heaviness and quality of the track to a new level. The guitars, making great use of contrasting clean and distorted tones throughout, shift seamlessly between vicious, caustic shredding and airy, hypnotic passages, drawing the listener in and making this song sound all the more varied and captivating. It’s a glorious, bombastic track that helps to bring Mot Ein Evig Ruin to its conclusion on an incredibly high, epic note.

Mot Ein Evig Ruin is, overall, a great album with a lot of impressive and interesting ideas. The musicianship is lean and varied, making for a tight and polished sound that makes each song sound fantastic. There’s a very solid thrash influence in some of the guitar playing, but doesn’t turn into a full on blackened thrash album. Rather, this is a record that ties a variety of playing styles in with black metal, and as a result, the music is incredibly dark, aggressive and foreboding from the first note to the last. With any luck, listeners won’t have to wait a full five years until the next album, and whatever BLODHEMN produce next will be at least on par with Mot Ein Evig Ruin.

Rating: 8/10

Mot Ein Evig Ruin is set for release February 15th via Soulseller Records. 

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