Debut full-length album from this one-man Icelandic band that plays a very melodic style of black metal. The harsh rasps and sawing guitars are backed by subtle and intricate keyboards that, combined with many slower passages, give Proscribed Chronicles of Niðavellir: Rituals of Death and Necromancy more emotional depth than typical black metal. Neither as symphonic as Emperor nor as close to traditional metal as Dissection, Eldur operates in the gloomy, dark chasm between. The straightforward black metal is fairly standard stuff, but the slow, pensive instrumental passages give this album its individuality, something not easy to do within the tightly proscribed black metal conventions. I particularly like "The Dark Mountains," which has an extra creepy atmosphere thanks to some haunting minor key acoustic guitars. I don't know how much "fresh energy" Eldur are bringing to black metal (that's what the label's promotional materials say), but there is enough on Proscribed Chronicles of Niðavellir: Rituals of Death and Necromancy to make it well worth a listen if melodic black metal is part of your permanent rotation.