Minneriket
Anima Sola

Sonic equivalent of an open wound, is how Minneriket or Stein Akslen who is the name behind the moniker describes the new album on the website. Anima Sola happens to be the fourth album by this Stein character, one of the three preceding albums was a tribute album to Burzum which might tell you something of what to expect musically. It is described as romantic black metal, which is kind of an oxymoron don’t you think? But what about the album, what does it offer and is it any good?

Hilarious could be a way to describe music like this, silly high pitched screamy black metal vocals. It offers the typical black metal sounds along with some gothic and punk touches, kind of like the classic uncompromising black metal of old but with a slightly more modern touch. Not much in terms of variation or depth and it is a very long album with a playing time of nearly one hour, that is just far too long for an album of this style and there is time to get boring several times over. In a way I find it hilarious that artists of this genre keep releasing albums that sounds more or less the same, but perhaps it is appealing to a certain flock of people.

I have to conclude that I am unimpressed by what I am hearing when I listen to this album. It may not sound completely like everything else but it can hardly be described as something that stands out, it is Norwegian styled black metal of a fairly standard variety. It is not a particularly exciting album in my view, perhaps it will appeal to the fans of the black metal genre as it presses most of the right buttons for them.

Tired of this album I finish with pointing out that it is an album that most likely will appeal to the black metal fanatics but not to any significant number of people. It is not really an album to bother with as it isn’t particularly exciting and personally I think it is an album that should tossed into the garbage.

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