Gnipahålan are a solo project from Sweden that has had music reviewed before in this zine and on this recording plays a very old school and cosmic form of black metal and this is a review of his 2024 album "Folkstorm" which will be released on December 25th by Purity Through Fire.
Atmospheric sounding keyboards start off the album and also mixes in with the heavier sections of the songs at times. while most of the tracks are also very long and epic in length. When guitar solos and leads are utilized they are also done in a very melodic style and the vocals are mostly high pitched black metal screams.
When the music speeds up a great amount of tremolo picking and blast beats can be heard which also gives the songs more of a raw feeling. Melodies are also added into some of the guitar riffing while the music is very heavily rooted in the 90's era and all of the musical instruments also have a very powerful sound to them.
Throughout the recording you can also hear a good mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts along with a few songs also adding in a small amount of spoken word parts as well as some clean playing also being utilized briefly. The production sounds very dark and raw while the lyrics are written in Swedish and cover darkness, death and mysticism themes.
In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from Gnipahålan and if you are a fan of old school and cosmic black metal, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Det Nordiska Urkallet" "Sprungna från Urtidens Kedja" and "Blodörnens Kall...". 8 out of 10.
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