Kampfar - Kvass

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About a decade ago I was the bass player in an oldschool black metal band called Dor Daedeloth. Our guitarist sometimes compared it with Kampfar. Back then I’d never heard of that band before. ‘Well we sound like Kampfar, I actually don’t know that band, but we sound like them’. A couple of years later ‘Fra Underverdenen’ became one of my favourite black metal albums. And it still is.

How does old school black metal sound? Well mostly there is no high budget for recording, the riffs are simple but catchy and the atmosphere is dark. Just like Kampfar’s new album Kvass. Simple guitar riffs and simple drumming, but great songs. What I really like is the emotion in the songs. Although the simplicity of the music, Kampfar creates this extraordinary atmosphere. For instance the first song ‘Lyktemenn’, a great song that is slowly climbing to the climax. After about 3 minutes the vocals begin, but the part before the vocals is already that good it gives me the pimles. Then the vocals come in and it is even getting better. Actually I can’t understand a word of what he is singing because I don’t speak any Norwegian, but who gives a fuck.

Another great song which follows the same pattern is ‘Ravenheart’ , the only song in English. Sometimes choirs are used to stimulate the music, I love that. Some folk influences are used as well. There are just a few bands I know that give me the same feeling, bands like Taake, Elite, Helrunar, Horna, Ljå, Nargaroth and the early works of Satyricon. All these bands created masterpieces of black metal, and Kampfar surely has to be named in that list. All the songs are well composed and never bored me, even after playing Kvass three times in a row.

Just six songs you might think. Well it are just six songs, but the total playing time is 46 minutes. So the songs are quite long. People that don’t like this kind of black metal won’t like the production I guess, but in my opinion this is how it should sound, this is black metal as it should be. Kvass really is a must have for all the fans of this genre.