• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Utlagr means Outlaw in Old Norse and is the name chosen by this French-Canadian band. Formed in 2001 by Eric Ouellet and Jacques Willard, the band completed his line-up the next year by adding Francois C. Fortin on drums and Sebastien Martel on bass.

The cover art made me strongly believe this was a Pagan /Viking type of metal and by checking on the label's site, their music is described as Black Metal with Pagan influences. I was disappointed to see this was not really what I've expected in the first place. Of course, it is nice to see what a band of your home town is coming up with. These guys are talented, tight and precise, no doubt about it. Their overall sound is Black Metal with good rasps and tremolo picking, forming the actual melodic side of their music and true that this is perhaps the Pagan, even epic at times, aspect that was mentioned on the label's site. The pace is very often in the fast/furious direction, lacking variation but still offering some short breaks. The drumming is relentless, pounding and over relying on double basses and blast beats. The sound is somewhat mechanical in that area, which becomes annoying after a while. A certain redundancy is settling, thing commonly felt while listening to Death metal. I would personally tag Utlagr as a Technical Death/Black metal band more than a purely Pagan Black metal act.

Some of the songs that caught more my attention were "I'm the Sinner", "Le Clan des Loups", "Circle of Life" and "Summer Island".