Cold Northern Vengeance – S/T Demo
Cold Northern Vengeance really has all their bases covered, proudly working into their logo design: 2 upside down crosses, 2 battle axes, 1 sun wheel and of course a Thor’s Hammer thrown in for good measure. With so many sigils of power leading the visual stampede, I feared that this would be a 4 track CDr demo full of clichés and likely unintelligible, amateurish poo. Thankfully, Cold Northern Vengeance turned out to be a very mighty thrust of pagan black metal that takes great care in creating a sound that is rather unique while sounding quite European. Starting this release out with an instrumental is a bold statement, one that shows how confident CNV is in their songwriting skills. Melodic riffs intertwine into layered dissonance, filling the warm sound spectrum with atmosphere and feelings of a triumphant victory in battle. The vibe created by this band is very majestic, even vision inducing, which is capitalized on 10 fold by their minimal use of keyboards and longer guitar phrases that really give the structures a lot of room to breath in all the staples of black metal and its sub-genres, to exhale suffocating drifts of snow covered woodland lust and pride in ones ancestral ties. The vocals found on “There are Halls to Spirit Depths of Buried Jelling” and “From Dungeons, to Northern Blackstorms” are mid-ranged and burnt out in their meaty lyrical upheaval and it strikes these ears as a delivery that isn’t typically found on the countless releases that pay due respect to Darkthrone. CNV leaves us with another impressive instrumental that is even more spacious in atmosphere and sonically wanders to ancient lands with dense guitar lines and a separate and minimal keyboard progression that really adds an enchanting dimension to this 2 man projects impressive and dynamic sound. Only 4 tracks and I must say this is easily the best and most meaningful demo found in this issue. I’m eager to hear what Cold Northern Vengeance can come up with for their next trip to the battlegrounds. – Marty
CNV, PO Box 48, Seabrook, NH 03874 USA
dungeoncult@aol.com
Worm Gear 