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Out of the jammed pack of talent country of Norway hail this relatively unknown band called Nattsol. Stemming means mood, atmosphere and is said to be similar to Ulver's early work.

As suggested by the beautiful artwork, Nattsol take you on a journey through the Norwegian landscapes with its forests, mountains, fjords and peaceful lakes. Again, I was taken by surprise by these newcomers' debut album. The underground abound with talent after all! This new opus is in pure Scandinavian style. The juicy riffing, raspy vocals, varied paces, including the usual fast/tremolo pickings and double basses are all parts of the scenery. Fortunately, this is nature and tales-inspired black metal, so subtle and delicate hues are also included in the Nordic scenery. Nattsol add a beautiful epic and folksy edge to their furious black metal. You can only be charmed by the frequent clean chant as well as those classical/acoustic guitars that are present in most of the compositions. You can find those organic tonalities during the calmer musical breaks scattered here and there on this nice release. Closing track, "Ved Hav I Advagsleitet" is simply made of classical guitars, flute and female vocals. This is a gorgeous tune and also my favorite.

You won't find anything bad on Stemming, just a cool opus of epic and folk influenced metal work of excellent Norwegian black metal arts.