MINNERIKET - Anima Sola
Akslen Black Art Records
MINNERIKET is a one man black metal project created by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Stein Akslen who hails from Norway, a lovely country by the way. You might've heard of it. But anyways something you might not of known was that last year Stein released the BURZUM tribute album, From the Veins of a Nearly Dead Boy. Now since I'm still a card carrying member of the Cult of Varg Vikernes I gotta say, what's the point? Why waste good creative talent by covering someone else's music verbatim, which was the case with that album.
Thankfully that's not the case with Anima Sola, Stein's fourth full length overall as MINNERIKET. Stein displays his creative talent and grasp of traditional atmospheric black metal from his home country. While in this mode the music is a mix of tense ambiance and beauty. At other times, mostly on the latter half, he experiments with post punk. His vocals are downright vicious as if he's in a vengeful rage for the most part. This works well when the song structures carry on in a melancholy pace. There are other times when he switches to a gothic doom vocal style.
Most of the cuts (there's ten in all) are short with only two exceeding seven minutes in length. Overall the addition of other styles does add contrast to what would be just another atmospheric black metal album. The post punk or gothic stuff does give off a hypnotic vibe. Stein mixes it all well with fierce blackened interludes letting the listener know he hasn't gone off the template. MINNERIKET's Anima Sola is far from being something new to the genre. It's definitely impressive and worth including on my list of potential best of 2018 releases. Perfection comes early.
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https://minneriket.bandcamp.com/
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