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Valfeanor had to be a band for me, so I thought after seeing the press release announcing the release of the band's debut, "En Ny Tid."

What do you know! The guys will be recording the follow up this spring! Once again, the cool cover art introduces the listener into the epic realm of cold lands. These Austrians play a melodic type of epic Black Metal. Symphonic keyboards create this sort of epic feel from beginning to end. Such nice atmosphere is more than enjoyable in the instrumental tracks like "Kingdom of a New Country", "Reborn in the Dark" and the closing track "...and have the Glory Days..." Good variety of guitar work here from melodic tremolo picking, acoustic guitars on one side, crunchier ones on the other. Complex and audible bass lines to accompany the drumming which includes double basses. Very good rasps tell their epic journey. So what we have on "En Ny Tid" in short are melodic compositions, easy to listen to with a pleasant Nordic edge. On the other hand, I found the overall work lacking in only one point: lack of punch and crunch. The music is perhaps a bit too nice whereas a certain Viking roughness might have come in handy. That being said, we have still a good opus of Black Metal here with cool compositions such as "En Ny Tid", "The Cold Hard Lands" and "The Last Chapter."

Looking forward to their sophomore effort!