Luteøks - Barely True Norwegian Black Metal (2023)

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Black Metal parody bands is something that one does not usually encounter, so it was quite interesting to hear Luteøks and their debut release: “Barely True Norwegian Black Metal”. Upon doing more research on the band and the release, we found out that the label, Nordic Mission, is an ‘extreme Christian Metal’ label and all members of Luteøks are also members of Grave Declaration, a fully Christian Metal band. However, moving that aside since we don’t care one bit, the music is actually really good and with plenty of familiar influences.

After a pummeling Old Man’s Child-esque intro with “Dritfjell”, the band fires up their old-school Norwegian BM chops with the very familiar opening minutes of “Sekken”. Every connoisseur of the genre will immediately pick up the familiar sounds the band manages to blend in together, particularly the Dimmu Borgir-esque nature of “Langbortistan” and its playful antics. We believe that some of the parody aspects might get lost in translation as almost all lyrics are in Norwegian.

The band’s musicianship is excellent, as they pull of all their purported influences flawlessly and tracks like “Prikkedøden”, “Tvinnleik”, and “Snerk” are excellent on their own. The drumming is very well recorded and delivers some intricate double-kick sections that many serious bands can’t pull off, while the riffing onslaught is a solid mix of familiar and unfamiliar top notch guitarmanship. Fans of the original bands and style, hopefully should not get offended and put off by the band’s funny take on the music.

Closing with two highly melodic tracks in “We Sail” and the epic “Shaved Vengeance”, the band sets a very high bar with their extremely well crafted familiar sounding music. Yet, many fans of the genre can’t take a joke and will hate this release on principle, but Luteøks has managed to craft a funny and well crafted ‘homage’ to some of the greatest bands and releases of the genre. However, if you like great music and don’t care about the ideas or what the musicians believe in their free time, you can’t miss out on this release.

Band: Luteøks Album: Barely True Norwegian Black Metal

Label: Nordic Mission

Release: March 10th, 2023

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Genre: Symphonic/Melodic Black Metal

Country: Norway

Rating: 94/100
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