Norse
The Divine Light of a New Sun

Dissonant black metal album with a name of divine light, that is what these Norse Australians are offering this time around. I actually had some expectations ahead of this album considering that the previous release Pest hade some good signs even though it might not have reached all the way. I had hoped that they were to build on that and make something even better, something really good perhaps. However, nothing of this really materialises. Sure they build on similar foundations and some atypical ideas for the black metal genre, which is always positive considering that the genre is usual about who makes the most typical sounding release – the more typical the better. But with poor vocals and uninteresting songs, this one hardly offer anything more than their more common styled competitors.

Dissonant black metal as the label describes the style works pretty well for describing this album and the style it offers. The sound is dissonant and raw, with grunting and gurgling vocals, it reminds me a little of the predecessor but it is less good and the sound doesn’t work as well for me. I find myself having difficulty mustering up the will and interest to play this album, I lose interest very quickly and my mind starts to wander, wander towards greener pastures, more interesting albums and that sort of thing.

It is not that they are bad; they are just not very interesting. I can see how they have potential to appeal to certain people but I doubt that many will find it an album that engages. And once again it is illustrated to me the most difficult thing about writing for this webzine, which is to find the words to write about albums that don’t really do anything for me. And this is such an album and the words have difficulty taking shape over the digital paper.

In the end I can conclude that this album doesn’t shine as divine as the title would seem to indicate and that it does absolutely nothing for me. This is just forty long minutes of indifference; the preceding EP Pest was far less of a pest listening to than this album. Sure it is not bad, it just isn’t very good.

HHHHHHH