Urkraft
The True Protagonist

Swedish and Danish for Primordial Power, that is what Urkraft means – sounds more powerful in Swedish than translated, but perhaps the band didn’t think of the international audience and having an understandable name. The Danes hiding behind the Urkraft moniker call their latest album The True Protagonist and it is apparently about some ugly person with a split personality – usually themes don’t interest me that much, especially when the story isn’t driving the musical style. I look at the cover and think that it is quite well-made but I don’t really like it, so what about the music?

They do offer some primordial power; it is death metal of a classical style. It is powerful, aggressive with heavy aggressive riffing and smattering drums. The vocals are growly, and there aren’t many surprises in the creative area. It is well-produced, it has the expected variation of songs, and you get more or less what you expect after hearing the first song. It appears the band isn’t interested in exploring new avenues, perhaps something that is typical for the death metal genre as it is usually quite conservative and consists of fans who doesn’t really want to hear anything new.

It is good enough, powerful, aggressive tones make it a death metal album that works for me. I like when they are heavy and a bit brutal, like it is here. The Danes do quite well, although I don’t expect to return to this album now that I have written what I want to say about it. And there isn’t much to say about it, it presses the typical buttons and the surprises aren’t there – don’t expect anything unexpected. But they are good enough not to make me bored or anything like that, so it is probably worth a shot if you like the style.

For death metal fans I suppose, and I doubt that The True Protagonist will have anything but a marginal impact on the number of fans for Urkraft and for the death metal genre in general. It works, it does what you expect, nothing more. It is a showing of some primordial power, but hardly an album that will be remembered in the future.

HHHHHHH