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I knew Helrunar already for having reviewed their 2005 debut Frostnacht. The trio from Germany is bouncing back as strong as ever with a sophomore release of Norse Black Metal.

Wind samplings, classical guitars, drum roll, distorted guitars and pounding percussions form the intro of the opening track, Dickichtgott. At the other end of this opus, Baldrs Drauma also uses the wind element, but this time some background percussions are coming into play while vocalist Skald Draugin takes the opportunity to improvise and recite the lyrics in a fashion that could have been done by an ancient Skald. In many occasions, those cool sounding classical guitars bring a warm melodic folksy touch, contrasting with the cold distorted riffing frequently found in the genre. Tearing/crushing riffs and melodic tremolo picking galore here, while distorted and clean arpeggios and some pleasant clean riffs complete the guitar work. Needless to say, this instrument rules! Not to be discarded is the pounding drumming, very well brought forward by the very good sound production. The raspy or spoken/choirs of vocalist Skald suit this perfectly and complete the scenery. Calm/ambient melodic breaks, crushing doom mid paces and fast/grim Black Metal are all very well represented here.

My favorites: Dickichtgott, Winter, & Hunta and Boga. Once again Germanic Black Metal rules!