Once upon a time in Norway, these guys who loved old school Black Metal got together and formed a band; they called that band Heimland and set out to play the rawest, most feral Black Metal that captures the frozen forests of their native country.

Forfedrenes Taarer is the band’s first full-length album after releasing the Skog and Heimland singles and then the Fimbulvinter (EP) in 2019 and 2021 respectively. So where does 2023 find them? With an excellent fucking debut!

Forfedrenes Taarer opens with the instrumental “Doedens Foerstning” which is a lush, soothing track that bursts into raging life as the melody becomes a different beast on “Ved Doedens Vugge” where the acoustic meets rabid electricity and the riff becomes a slicing blade, flaying your eardrums for it’s 6.47-minute length. “Lagt I Ruiner”, “Iskald Raatten Jord” and the amazing title track form the heart of this Norwegian wolf, pulsing with the blood of ages.

“Skugger Fra Ei Svunnen Tid” and “Ættestupet” round out this brutal beating of a debut. Based on this killer record, Heimland has landed on my radar (that sounds all fucking official, I’m still just a guy with a shitty laptop).

I hear influences in Forfedrenes Taarer that I kind of expect from any Norwegian Black Metal these days, which makes this for fans of paragraph easier but doesn’t take away from what Heimland have achieved with this fantastic debut. (Drum roll!) For fans of Norwegian Black Metal! Ha ha, not that easy. If you worship at the altar of Einherjer, Windir, Enslaved “Lagt I Ruiner” especially, Dimmu Borgir (early mind you, not so much their recent output).

The raw production harkens back to Satyricon’s massive Shadowthrone and the classic split between Enslaved and Emperor. Forfedrenes Taarer is another Klondike Bar album, I think of the snow-covered mountains and the balls-freezing Fjords; it’s that good of a debut and I recommend it with extreme urgency.

[Visit the band's website]

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