Though in a generic sense this album could be described as black metal of the more melodic persuasion, this barely scratches the surface of all the various moving parts that manifest from one song to the next. If it could be said that the original synthesis of black metal with folk music that these musicians dabbled in previously were the result of an underlying proclivity for experimentation, then this album could be regarded as a returned to the genre-splicing laboratory with a wider array of compounds to mix together. The basic template is that of a thrashing variant of black metal with some punk elements, occasionally even veering into similar territory to where Darkthrone was at around the same time with The Cult Is Alive. However, this Norwegian fold decides to run the gamut of styles that have every been spliced together with black metal in the preceding decade from ambient, industrial, and symphonic elements to even the occasional old school heavy metal riff, effectively morphing an otherwise straightforward album into an abridged anthology of sorts that checks off just about every possible box from the glory days of the second wave.
Despite the highly varied presentation, there is a sort of rustic, simplistic charm that permeates every facet of this album and makes it highly accessible. Riding off of a production that is moderately raw, yet also well balanced and featuring a notably polished drum sound, even more basic forays into early 90s black metal classicism such as “Da Draumen Rakna” (which could almost be direct nod to early Immortal) and “The Red Smell” have a sense of layered coldness that is a bit denser than a typical 1990s black, but nowhere near the pompous character of Dimmu Borgir’s mid-2000s albums. Likewise, the more punk-infused romps in “Hang ‘Em All” in all its d-beating glory and the more thrashing “Left To Hate” (which also features a rather blatant homage to Reign In Blood era Slayer at the tail end) sound a bit punchier and heavier that the crackling fuzz of later 2000s hardcore-infused Darkthrone. All the same, this album pretty much wears its affinity with the previous decade’s Nordic blackened fair quite often, with the ambient turned quasi-symphonic experiment “Eit Kapittel For Seg Sjolv” splitting the difference between Gorgoroth, Burzum and Enslaved, while a more war-like nod to vintage Darkthrone is found in the de facto title song “Pitch Black”.
At first listen this album may come off as a tad quirky, and it arguably goes a little overboard with emphasizing ancillary stylistic gimmicks, but this is definitely among the more solid slabs of black metal to come out of the mid-2000s that wasn’t either trying to be rawer than Ildjarn on his worst day or trying to rival Nightwish with how much symphonic bombast it could cram into things without turning into said band minus the operatic soprano. It manages to buck a number of negative trends in black metal by putting a bit more emphasis on the bass, often giving it some solo slots to give things a sense of contrast beyond the obligatory switches between thrashing riffs and blasting tremolo lines, not to mention featuring a production quality that isn’t tinny or in any way top heavy. It should appeal to fans of Windir, though anyone approaching this with an expectation that it will go about trying to continue the same specific style that they left things on with Likferd is setting themselves up for disappointment. This is typical black metal played in arguably the most atypical way possible, and barring some tolerance for a few quirky musical asides, it’s a solid presentation the whole way through.
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