When dark clouds are building themselves up in the horizon and a storm is coming, that is Svartahrid. It’s an Old Norwegian word used by the Vikings when they were out on the seas. Black metal band Svartahrid hails from Skien, the central city of the region Telemark in southern Norway. From this region origin also other bands like Emperor and Myrkskog. The band was founded in Autumn 1994 by Forn and Istar. Svartahrid gained some attention when in June 2003 former bass player Ilvastar, broke into a crematory, and desecrated several corpses and severed the head from a cadaver. He had left Svartahrid already two years before though.

Early 2003, Svartahrid recorded the album Sadness and Wrath, but it wasn’t released until now. The album consists of orthodox, raw and melodic black metal, inspired by nature and the Viking era. In addition to their own sound and elements of Mactätus, another black metal band with Istar and Forn, riffs and structures of bands like Elite, Craft, Taake and Darkthrone.

can be dissected. The song structures aren’t to difficult, but are really catchy and atmospheric, often caused by mid-tempo paced parts. As with their second album, Sadness and Wrath lacks the use of keyboards, in contradiction to their earliest album. The album is a little less raw though, the vocals aren’t as furious and the guitar riffs are less grim. The instrumentsl are played well enough and the album has a descent production. The track Intensjon: Krig reminds me the most of the earlier work of Svartahrid. Interesting enough, vocals and lyrics on this song were done by Darkthrones Nocturno Culto. This song, also musically, reaches above the other songs in originality.

Sadness and Wrath is a recommendable black metal album: not too original, but with catchy songs and the old Norwegian feeling. Since 2003 Svartahrid has created a lot of new material and will start the recording of their fourth album in spring 2007.