I admit that this Swedish band was flying under my radar for a decade. They started as a group mixing folk metal, black metal and melodic death metal, and now, after 3 EP's and two full-length albums, it's a one-man project of Henrik Bodin-Sköld. The third album 'Prisma Aeternus' was released about a month ago via digital providers.

Norrsköld hail from Gothenburg, which becomes very clear very soon when listening to the opener. This is all pretty action-filled stuff here, and as the songs are mostly under 4 minutes long each, only 2 exceeding that duration, also tight and a vivid take on the genre. Norrsköld operate somewhere in vicinity of Gothenburgers In Flames and Machinae Supremacy, but also jump to the other side of the Gulf of Bothnia to meddle with Children Of Bodom.

This is more on the modern end of melodic death metal, but some of the polymorphous melodies make it feel older, but not that folky at all. 'Witness the Illusion' features some metalcore-style beats, but its DNA is still 100% Gothenburgian. The guitar melodies fly high and wild, perfectly evident on 'Hollow Adoration', which is the chirpiest piece here, followed by slower, wistful 'Perfection into Solitude'. 'Beyond the Night' is very COB-ish, attacking song, presenting some great sense for melody. 'Only Silence' makes me think about Soilwork, featuring AOR-style keyboard work. The songs have quite a bit twists and turns each, even though they aren't long, but the tempo is often more or less fast. The album is over fast, but due to being upbeat and wiggly, it offers quite a lot for chewing.

The most extreme thing on the album are the vocals, which are mainly snarly yet varying growling, accompanied by some shouts and crooning. Sometimes close to Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquillity, The Halo Effect), they certainly have bite to them.

The production is a tad cheap-sounding: Probably recorded home and with a drum machine utilized (if so, very well programmed). It is somewhat blunt and thin. The lead guitar sounds like a light-weight bee... The instruments are easy to tell apart, at least. Game-esque cover artwork looks mighty fine, and was provided by Niklas Sundin (perhaps that too made me think about Machinae Supremacy).

A cool album of modern melodic death metal, the style which I often find too much by-the-book. Still, it is easy to draw parallels to so many big bands, that I still cannot say this being characteristic, jumping out of the big crowd. It is more metal than core, which always is plus in my book.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
12/06/2022 23:54