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Although I would be the first to admit that I have never been a purveyor of Black Metal, recently for whatever reason, I guess you don't need one, I've decided to open my mind and expand my musical horizons, the results of which have produced a major renaissance, which has produced several gold nuggets to my ever expanding CD collection. Let's begin with Naglfar's latest in a succession of quality releases, 2007's Harvest.

Naglfar is another one of the great Black Metal bands who have taken the more modern approach in terms of producing a thicker, more powerful riff-oriented brand of Black Metal, with booming bass and thunderous drumming. The screeching vocals of Kristoffer "Wrath" Olivius, while the standard fare for the genre are decipherable most of the time, add yet another element of satisfaction to the listening experience. However, I would encourage traditionalists to not be turned off by this because while being decipherable he manages to sound evil and menacing enough to appear possessed. The other band members bring a lot to the party as well, the bass, rhythm guitars and the drums provide an unrelenting maelstrom of power and aggression. I also have to make mention of the ever present lightning fast guitar solos throughout the entire album.

So while hardened true Black Metal traditionalists will probably be turned off by the slickened and powerful modern day production which enables all the instruments - yes, even the bass - to be clearly audible in the mix, fans of mid-period Dimmu Borgir, or the recent catalogs of bands like Dark Fortress, Catamenia and Marduk will undoubtedly want to check this out. Those who enjoyed the band's previous releases Pariah or Sheol will be intoxicated by the harsh melody-enriched modern Black Metal of Harvest. I'm rather enjoying this new age of Black Metal.