Black Book Lodge
Tûndra

Deep in the frozen tundra, near the lakes with the mighty icebergs lies a small lodge. A lodge where the black books are stored, hidden away from the world and those who never dares to thread outside the paths to places they have never visited. Keepers of this lodge is a Danish quartet who did unleash their work upon their country folk to much celebration in the early part of the year. Their work has now reached the rest of the world with cheers from the usual suspects, something like that. Well, that’s about what I got on this story but the danes have one EP before this, their debut album called Tûndra which has a pretty nice cover artwork if they tone down their band name just a little bit. So what about this highly acclaimed album, will it pass the much harder scrutinising of the Hallowed reviewer?

Well, stoner rock/metal with some progressive undertones is the genre. At least they have gone for something a bit less overcrowded which is always something positive and the fact that they put their own stamp on their music is another plus in my black book. The vocalist is epic, like a hero from a book (that was the worst parable ever). The production is also epic, like a majestic adventurous epic taking place amongst the frozen lakes and frost bitten plants in the far north. It is a powerful album with a good drive and variation, it keeps the nine tracks ever relevant throughout the nine tracks and they do that without ever loosing coherency in their storyline. That is a feat worthy of a more mature band, this does not sound like a band’s first album, it sounds a lot more thought out that those usually are.

One question I ask myself is wether this is the debut album of the year so far. The answer is that I don’t know as I don’t recall what other debut albums I have reviewed amongst the quite many albums I have spent my time listening to and review but it has to be up there amongst the best. It is impressive, the songs are all very good and the variation keeps you interested all the way through. And the depth makes the album last for repeated playing, I cannot really find anything to make a negative remark on, they push the right buttons and I can recommend that you take a look at the album. A very enjoyable album, that’s for sure and if the world is fair they do get the success such an album deserves and then they come back and makes an album that is even better. But until that happens I recommend that you buy this album and let it spin for a while in your record player or whatever you play the album on.

There are so many strong tracks on this album so it would be unfair to pick out any and say it is the best but the second track Black Sheep / Prodigal Sons is one that has a massive hit potential and stand out in that regard. It is probably why that track is their single track. I also think the opening Battering Ram is a great thing to take you into the album and the title track is one that I recall a bit more than the others, it is a good break from what the album mostly sound like. A well balanced and very impressive album is the logical summary of this thing. I recommend that you look it up and that you put the name Black Book Lodge in your memory bank, this is a great album.

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