Here’s another one of the springs ‘big’ releases, and I was even more intrigued to hear this, in light of how impressed I was with former Naglfar member Jens Ryden’s solo project, Profundi and to simply see how Naglfar would respond with their second post Ryden album.

Well. It’s a Naglfar album. It sounds a lot like Pariah, and even Sheol. It’s tight, it’s superbly produced, and it’s vitriolic, got plenty of venomous melodies and oozes professionalism and class at every biting riff. However, like the new Dimmu Borgir album, many will buy Harvest on merit alone, not actual quality, but personally the band will never top Diabolical, and as a result each subsequent album comes across as slightly formulaic and empty.

That’s not to say Harvest isn’t a great album-for what it offers, it is. The 9 tracks deliver plenty of enjoyable, familiar razor sharp riffs and scathing harmonies (“Odium Generis Human”, “Way of The Rope”, “Plutonium Reveries” and “Feeding Moloch”) all rendered with a glossy production and Kristoffer Olivius’s generic rasps and even some slower moments such as “The Mirrors of My Soul”, “My Darkest Road” and the epic (7 minutes), atmospheric closing title track. But If I played this album on shuffle along with Pariah or Sheol, apart from the track “Harvest” I probably couldn’t tell you which tracks were from which album. Harvest’s, slightly more bass heavy production might give it away. But if in the Profundi album was in the mix, I’d pick it out right away.

Still, Harvest is an above average, expected album from an above average, veteran band, who knows their niche and delivers it with resolve and skill. It’s just no Diabolical.

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