Eleven albums. Almost 25 years. That’s pretty impressive by any band’s standards and it does come with some level of expectation. Borknagar have risen to this challenge and created something very special with True North.
Now I’m by no means a black metal fan. I enjoy it a bit, when I’m in the right mood, but I often find it’s taken a bit too much to the extremes both in musical style and attitude. Hence I was blown away by how accessible True North is. It’s about 90% melodic, with the harsher, more evil stuff relegating to ing phases.
What it does have is bags of atmosphere, and beautifully layered and crafted music. None of the tracks drop below five minutes with several hitting eight or nine upwards, and yet none of them drags. The generous running length in each is fully utilised, packed with driving beats and sonorous guitarwork. While this clean work has been present in Borknagar’s work for a long time, it’s really taken over with this album and I’m absolutely loving it.
Main man Brun has said:
I would argue that True North is more diverse than anything we have done before from an objective point of view. There is, in general, more variation and interesting dynamics going on throughout the album, from song to song. Even though we wanted to preserve a solid consistency throughout the album, we worked a lot to make each and every song stick out with its own personality and vibe.
With that statement he’s nailed it. This is a hugely varied album and for any other band would perhaps be considered a bit too ambitious. Borknagar, however, have taken their ten previous albums’ experience and polished the hell out of it.
I’m not going to go through each track. Suffice to say there’s not a bad one on here and, though they’re individually good, the album really needs to be experienced in a single sitting. True North is an album you can get completely lost in.
True North is out on September 27th
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