Naglfar
“Sheol”
(Century Media)
With an illegible logo and an over the top blast intro you know right where Naglfar is going to take you. At times the band sounds like King Diamond’s band, circa “Abigail,” covering Old Man’s Child, circa “Ill-natured Spiritual Invasion,” with a nasty growling, screaming demon at the helm. Naglfar are a fearsome death metal band, darkened with the pitch kicked up from the black metal scene, operating at the pace of an electric toothbrush. That may not seem all that impressive, but let me assure you, some of those electric toothbrushes go very fast and Naglfar goes as fast as the one of the fastest.
They come from Sweden baring black metal like so many others from Sweden and whether or not they are superior or inferior to their legion of brethren from their home country I am not wont to say. I find them as delightful as a spring rain, but I won’t say if that’s a spring rain on a day I’ve planned a picnic or a day I planned to sit on the porch sipping Merlot and watching rainfall. You can never be sure what I mean. You can never quite know exactly what I mean by the comparisons I make. You will always be partly in the dark for a record review is like an iceberg, 70% of the truth remains under water, hidden to those afraid to search beneath the waves.
