Reviews : Albums : Keep of Kalessin, "Agnen : A Journey Through the Dark"

Agnen : A Journey Through the Dark basically picks up where Through Times of War left off for this Norwegian black metal band. The music is the same raw, mid-to-quick tempo, black metal typical of the whole Scandinavian scene. If anything, the tracks are faster and harsher sounding than their previous, first album and the first track especially is really brutal. There appear to be elements of thrash metal incorporated into many of the songs on this album - its very subtle and very faint but it is there. The end of track three has a guitar trill than sounds just like an early Iron Maiden track, so somebody, somewhere's, been digging through some older stuff looking for inspiration. The production that the band have got on this album is really excellent and they have obviously spent a bit on the packaging as well.

Overall, the album has a more lived-in feel than the former one though I still really prefer their first album for it's more interesting songs. It is not that this is a bad album - far from it. It's just I had expected more progression, more new ideas, more innovation that would make you think this was an outstanding album instead of a good, workmanlike one.

This album is good, just don't expect anything different.

Standout Tracks    Pain Humanised    Towards I roam

M.Megaw