Nidingr – Wolf Father (2011)

Underground Black Metal outfit Nidingr is ready to come out of their caves and blow people away with their second full-length release “Wolf Father”. Featuring Black Metal ‘super stars’ Teloch (ex-Gorgoroth, etc) and Blargh (Dødheimsgard) handling the guitars, Hellhammer (Mayhem, Arcturus, etc) on drums, and some dude nicknamed Cpt. Estrella Grasa on vocals.

With such an impressive line-up of musicians, “Wolf Father’ plays out to be an excellent release that features the Scandinavian way of making Black Metal with some Death Metal influences. Each song is crafted around super tight drumming and intricate guitar riffing allowing Nidingr to sound cold and harsh, but still clear enough to distinguish every detail in the music.

Wasting no time, “Fafnismol” breaks into powerful guitar riffing with a very solid bass guitar line. As soon as the tremolo-picking sections start, you know you are right at home if you like Scandinavian Black Metal. The vocals are not very high-pitched but sound great with the music, there are also some growls here and there giving the music an extra level of aggression that some bands seem to be lacking. 

The best song in the album for us has to be “Balrds Draumar”, particularly after the 2 minute mark, when the tempo gets slower and the overall crushing feeling of this track is heightened. This part in particular creates the hopelessness feeling that older Black Metal bands use to create very often, but since then it’s been lost by time. The participation of Garm with some clean vocals in this song makes it even more magical for fans of older Arcturus, Borknagar, etc.

Rounding up the album we have “Reginsmol”, “Voluspo”, “Hymiskvitha” and “Lokasenna”, tracks that allow the release to continue with it’s hectic pace and crushing power. In this songs we get a hefty dose of relentless drumming combined with brilliant tremolo-picking sections and crushing Death Metal influences, all adorned by the brutal vocals of Cpt. Estrella Grassa. Each song will allow you to find details that will have you listening for a while to each of them, making this album have high replay value.

With around 23 minutes of music, “Wolf Father” will be a very fast and hectic experience for the listener, but due to the quality of the musicians everybody will be pleased with such a crushing release. There is almost nothing bad to be said about such a release except that is too short for some of us. So if you like Scandinavian Black Metal with Death Metal influences and a solid production look no further and get this album.

Release: January 18, 2011

Country: Norway