Fyrnask – Bluostar (2011)

Beautifully packed in a lush digisleeve, today we have Fyrnask’s debut full-length release “Bluostar”. Mixing some pretty bone-chilling ambient/atmospheric elements with harsh and devastating Black Metal, Fyrnask delivers over 55 minutes of brilliant music that while not everybody’s cup of tea, it did affected us in a positive way.

The mastermind behind the band, Fyrnd, delivers flawless performances in all instruments making them all come together in a brilliant way to capture the raw essence of Black Metal and incorporate the hypnotic feeling of the ambient sections. While most BM tracks are over 7 minutes, the brilliantly placed interludes and intros of song songs nicely shake things up and allow the listener to be always guessing what’s coming next.

The opening act “At fornu fari” has a very Event Horizon (the movie) kind of atmosphere to it and it creeped the shit out of us. The guitar riffing suddenly starts near the middle of this track and nicely blends into the beginning of the devastating second track “Evige Stier”. In this song, Fyrnask fully explodes into a Black Metal beast that will immediately satisfy your evilness needs.

The guitar sound is very dissonant and nicely layered to create a very intricate and interesting Black Metal sound that not a lot of bands can craft this way. While there are some similarities to the traditional bands (Emperor, Marduk, etc), Fyrnask has a nice sound of its own that will haunt your dreams. However, not all is brutality and rawness, the band also achieves brilliant melodic levels in some passages like on “Evige stier” when the clean vocals come on.

The next full devastating assault is “Eit fjell av jern”, another track that is very interestingly arranged to deliver both brutal and melodic textures. With some Doom like elements, it is very interesting to have such a wide variety of sounds in just the first four songs of this release. Mixing totally disruptive sounds with brilliant riffing “Bergar” and “Ins Fenn” brilliantly contribute to the overall majesticness of such a release. The closing track “Bluostar” is an excellent tour de force that features most of the album’s brilliant elements put together in a monumental 10 minute track.

As one of the best albums we have received in 2011, “Bluostar” has something for everybody. From kvlt Black Metal fans to Doom/Post-Metal groupies; this release will surely touch you in some way. Fyrnd has managed to craft a near perfect release in terms of mixing countless elements and delivering breathtaking compositions that will haunt your dreams. If you like your music to be original and devastating, do yourself a favor and get “Bluostar” before it is too late.

Release: September19th, 2011

Country: Germany