Ereb Altor – Eldens Boning – Blessed Altar Zine

Band: Ereb Altor
Title: Eldens Boning
Label: Hammerheart Records
Release date: 07 May 2021
Country : Sweden
Format reviewed: High-quality digital recording

If you are hungry for some epic, pagan, Viking metal then Erab Altor’s newest album “Eldens Boning” is the one to check out. If Nordic stories run deep in your heritage, this band honors that tradition in their songwriting and style of music, and, if you are a fan of the pagan black metal sounds, I say again, this EP has you covered. So please, sit back, put on your desired form of listening devices and let the music that whispers of distant times move in you. I shall try my best to convey with words, what this music unleashed in my ears.

Erab Altor has been around since 2003 and has been a hard-working band with full-length album releases and a smattering of EPs nearly every year since they started. Mats have played all instruments and sang for this band for the majority of the time. Ragnar also has played a multitude of instruments and jumps in on vocals as well. Tord has concentrated on drums, particularly since 2012, and, Mikael, has been backing vocals and bass, mostly from 2014 to the present day.

First up is: “The Twilight Ship”, and right away you hear the Viking influence, and a storytelling intro leads more to your interest in what will this song be like. Not much waiting and the atmosphere breaks to usher in heavy guitar riffs, and a folksy edge to the keyboards, vocals are clean and bring in the clarity of an echoing call in the mists of a sea at morning. Listen to the guitar solos and know that the standalone sound would be enough on its own. Added to the atmosphere building notes, and vocals, and this one really tells of the Viking heritage. This lets you travel to another place, and I could see endless mountain ranges and black forests in the mind imagery this song creates.

Left to right: Tord (drums), Mats (lead vocals & guitars), Ragnar (guitars & vocals), Mikael (bass & vocals)

The second is “Fenrisulven” and violins to lead us into it. Acoustic guitar escaping and shaping comes in, with a beautifully melodic vocal to round out the atmosphere that is picked up again by seemingly weeping violins. Such depth of sound expressed here and it’s very memorable. Hearing the vocal, clean, with harmonies against the acoustic is really something, for those that love this epic style of storytelling in their songs.

The third is “Eldens Boning”, which is a departure from the recent sounds, more of the blackened tremolos and speed riffs of black metal. Now the guttural vocal with the pounding drums and riffs, and it jumps into another chilling guitar solo. This to me is the blend of black metal and pagan with cold depths of melancholy. No doubt about it, the flexibility of this band to incapsulate blackened metal, with pagan, change up the vocal styling from clean to guttural, and finally to add the melodic keys of what you’d hear in melodic metal is letting me hear their versatility.

Fourthly, “Sacrifice”, vocals are a taking turn of clean, to guttural, with the keyboards lacing in more of the melodic. This track is very well performed, yet I find it doesn’t reach as far as the previous three have. Still, I enjoyed the absolute musicianship of this track as a whole.

Viking metal, Yes. Pagan, Yes. Blackened metal, Yes. Epic melodic keyboarding and atmosphere to the combination of vocal styles in opposition, yes. Does this make for an memorable EP, damn right it does. I give this 7.5/10 Metal Marie

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