Fjoergyn
Lvcifer Es

German black metallers Fjoergyn doesn’t like the world we live in today, with the human marionettes falling for populist ideas and intolerance is growing. Instead of making Satan loving black metal they make social criticism in balck metal form. That is a refreshing way to lock at things, and their music isn’t too shabby either. If their music make anyone think is a whole different matter, and while Germany may have many inhabitants and all it is not the best way to reach really wide to sing in German. But to be more international they have taken a name from Icelandic mythology.

I would describe this as well produced black metal with strong vocals and good musicianship. A bit avant-garde and a bit progressive – it is melodic black metal of course. And it is clear that it is a band performing and not just a studio project like it was from the beginning, over a decade ago. Now they are releasing the fifth album and it sounds solid and well made, but I don’t think that all is well as there are things you can have some opinions about.

There are several songs that are too long; a few of them pass the ten-minute mark. And it is not just the songs; the album itself is over an hour, which is too much, as the songs don’t produce enough dynamics to keep you listening for the entire time. They have a good production not the massive wall of sound that many similar bands produce but they don’t take advantage of it by making songs with more depth and variation, it is like they hade the foundation to make something excellent but ended up making something good. Aim for the moon; end up on Matterhorn or something like that.

These complaints aside, it is a solid effort and a good album. While I don’t think it is for the peripheral music fan it is certainly something that fans of the genre should have a closer look at. Had it only been a bit more dynamic and with shorter songs I think I would have really liked it, now it gave me a few hours of decent musical entertainment but I think there are better choices out there so this is another good album to tick off before moving to the next.

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