The cover art really suits this album; this is black metal with considerable echo and blare. The band hailed (they have been silent for nine years now) from Southern Finland, but they sound like they came from colder North. Here's a trivia bit: three of the latest known lineup play in doom metal band Skepticism nowadays. Needless to mention, Thromdarr did not sound anything like Skepticism. Nor do they play death metal like in their previous band Necrobiosis. This is black metal.

The guitar work is simplistic, somewhat akin to Venom and Barathrum. The tone is very meaty at times, and other times shrieky, but not really buzzing, more like icy. The bass offers more low pounding and slapping, following the guitar. The drums are reverbing and thunderous. The vocals are barked or shouted, with more shrieky style also utilized, and sometimes they sound rather anguished (suitably so). Some keyboards here and there are used as background mat or two-finger melodiousness; you won't hear nothing symphonic here, but it brings in those vibes of yearning gothic romanticism.

Simplistic black metal riffage is accompanied by a tad more heavy metalish stuff. The lead guitar work is about fast picking, again fluctuating between black and heavy metal styles, and some melodic death metal. The latter harks back to earlier Sentenced and Nocturnal Winds. At the most melodic, Thromdarr was hummable. The atmospheres vary from evil to ancient, and from natural to berserking, pagan. And let's not forget that romanticism, the gothic way... To tell the truth, the album is quite varying, yet still everything fit under one name. They managed to steer clear from juvenile sounding stuff for a big part, aftger all the music was written between 1991-1998. However, youthful energy is here, for sure.

The fastest song is tremolo-driven, blasting 'SilverThrone', where the band probably wanted to channel some Impaled Nazarene. Its opposite is gothic 'A Crown of Black Thorns', closer to Sir Luttinen's other band, Legenda. Gotta admit, that this album isn't unique at all. Still, pagan black metal of 'An Eclipse over the Mountains' sweeps like an avalance, burying listener under cold, and the second to last song, 'The Embrace of Cold' nicely wraps things up with slow closer.

In the end, 'NorthStorm Arrives' is not a classic, but it is one for those who seek something like older Sentenced (especially 1993's 'North from Here'), or generally 1990s peculiar Finnish metal.

"Frozen as the moon is the land,
of the wolves under the sun.
Shadows of the woods hide the light,
of the stars into the dark."

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
07/15/2020 19:19