Style: Black metal, viking metal, epic, folk
Primary Emotions/Themes: I'm left with a sense of awe
Thoughts: How? How have I missed this band for so long? How have I not known about them until this year?
I love Icelandic black metal. I love epic music. I love music that builds and takes it's time. I love music that has a sense of purpose. WHY THE FUCK HAVEN'T I KNOWN ABOUT THESE GUYS???
Arstidir Lifsisns play black metal combined with viking metal. This of course has been done before, in fact most of the entries into the viking metal field can also be classified as black metal. Why then am I so fucking excited about this album? It's just black metal and viking metal right? Well... yes it is... but it's also so much more.
This band... oh this band has tapped into something that is so rare, so incredibly powerful, I only hear it a few times a decade. They have managed to create an epic. Not something that claims to be epic, but something that truly is. The music is greater than the sum of it's parts. It takes every little detail into consideration, no matter how small. It knows when to be quiet (and there are a lot of quiet parts), it knows when to swell, it knows when to be at peace and it knows when to rage.
These nine songs - or chapters would be a more appropriate term - have been crafted in such a way that the music has an incredible scope to it. Be it the slow mournful violin played while wind sweeps across my speakers, or the incredible rage of battle as the band unleashes all hell into the audio world. It doesn't matter. It's all good. Every. Single. Moment.
I don't normally get this excited for new music. I've heard thousands of albums in my life and it takes something truly incredible to move me as I'm getting up in age. Arstidir Lifsins have done that. They have conquered all the odds and created something that resonates deeply with me.
I can count on one hand the amount of times that this has happened in the last twenty years: Moonsorrow, The Ruins of Beverast, Emperor, Ulcerate, and Ulver. That's the list that these guys join. That's not to say that there are other bands out there that haven't moved me. There are plenty of albums that I love, and find great enjoyment in. This is something deeper though... it's something that I'm not quite sure I got words for. Whatever it is though, this has the potential to be among my favorite albums... ever.
Written December 4th 2023
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