Description
metal-maniac.com = 9,3/10 Points:
The Norwegian Black Metal band Kvalvaag was founded in 2012 in the country’s capital city. This band is a project of musician Kvalvaag of bands such as Mök, Astaroth and Attentat. Some misinterpretations concerning the band’s views have occurred and the following statement was necessary: “There has been a lot of rumors that Kvalvaag is an anarchy black metal band because of the first logo draft. The band or me personally does not have any political agenda in any direction, Kvalvaag is a non-political band.” Always good to make things clear, being political or not.
In the current year, the band’s début album has seen the light of day, or perhaps the shadows of the night or anything cliché-related to Black Metal. Anyways, if you follow my work here on Metal-Maniac and on the MetalCast Show, you are already aware that I love Black Metal for many years and I’m not being disrespectful against the genre I admire so much, but, sometimes, all the clichés become so tiresome you avoid reading some articles. Well, Kvalvaag’s “Noema” doesn’t qualify as a cliché album at all and I believe this is the most important piece of the present article.
“Noema” presents us with an excellent view of Black Metal, very eerie and melodic. But the album isn’t “limited” to Black Metal, there are some Punk and Doom elements which are very welcomed when used with creativity and quality, such is the case of “Noema”. In a way, you might feel that, especially when it comes to the guitars, this is one more pure Norwegian Black Metal album that could have been released by Mayhem or Gorgoroth, but, if you pay attention to the details, this is a unique release and not an album in which the musician simply wanted to recreate the old-school classics. The drumming work is very enjoyable, fast and chaotic, completely fitting the music created by Kvalvaag.
The production is clean, many a little bit lo-fi, but, I’m pretty sure no Black Metal listener would complain about it, so, one more positive aspect for Kvalvaag’s “Noema”. All in all, this is highly impressive, even more for being the band’s first full-length album and I invite you all to give it a try and support this band the way that is possible for you. In my humble opinion, they’re more than worth a try! Amazing stuff. (Marcus Goulaart)