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ALBUM REVIEW
- Fenriz’ Red Planet/Nattefrost -
Engangsgrill
- Indie Recordings
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- For all the media exhaustion and
general scepticism surrounding this release, it actually makes quite a lot of sense (apart
from the choice of title, obviously. I guess you had to be there). The tracks
contributed by Fenriz under the banner of his Red Planet project are a potent mixture of
Darkthrone’s early 4-track loveliness and a huge dosage of Black Sabbath and
Pentagram, whilst Nattefrost’s offerings are boiled-down gobbets of the punky, messy,
blackened nastiness for which he is rightly lauded. Both ‘sides’, in a way,
light fires that illuminate some obvious but awesome bridges, as the musicians’ own
description had it, "between black metal, doom and classic rock". It’s both
an insight and a celebration.
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- Red Planet is rightly accorded the
privilege of opening proceedings, because it deviates far further from its creator’s
more famous path, and so is guaranteed to make the listener sit up and take notice.
Recorded back in the necrohellacious day, I believe these tracks had to be ripped from a
cassette, which explains both the audio imperfections and air of sheer genuineness and
integrity that they give off. Sure, Fenriz is a… surprising…clean singer,
but actually, when you settle into the groove, you wouldn’t choose any other
performance. Along with the mammothly weighty riffs and beautifully meandering solos (pure
early Sabbath), his plaintive yet masculine tone is perfect for the job. "My Ship
Sailed Without Me" is excellent in its purity, but I’m also grabbed by the
riff from "Temple of the Red Dawn Rising", which, if I can borrow a
phrase from my colleague Mr Muttley, is entirely dirty, kinky and low.
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- If you find yourself, like me,
simultaneously laughing manically, throwing horns, banging your head and feeling an urge
to grievously assault the WHOLE FUCKIN’ WORLD when you listen to Nattefrost’s
compositions, then the second half of "Engangsgrill" is going to be a
happy/psychotic place for you. "Nekronaut" announces his arrival with a
howl and a filthy riff, whilst "Uskyldighet" mingles pace and sheer
nastiness to fine effect, and "Sin Goddamit" unleashes the warped humour.
"Lustmord", a mingling of samples, garbled vocals and a list of serial
killers, which finally wakes up into a riff, unfortunately has merit for being something
rare but for little else, but "Humiliated and Pissed Upon" is a good
closer, echoing in the grinding pace of Fenriz’ opening efforts.
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- Some people have a problem with the
disparity of material here, but I guess what’s really bugging them is that Red Planet
could easily hold one’s attention for a full-length, and three tracks whetted their
appetite without granting total satisfaction. A justified regret, maybe, especially if you
don’t love Nattefrost quite as much as I do, but three tracks are all we’re
getting (for now?) from Red Planet, and to whine is to overlook the gift we do receive; an
eclectic but somehow logical mish-mash of groove, spit, stomp and howl. UHHHH!
- 85/100
- Ellen Simpson
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- www.myspace.com/engangsgrill
- www.myspace.com/nattefrostmanagement
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