Borknagar - True North

In love with this new song. What a (pleasant) surprise....

I have such a high expectation!!!

Perfect

The album is perfect and EPIC. They exceeded every expectation I had!

Written by Harmaajoki on 10.09.2019 at 01:48

I have such a high expectation!!!

Me too, and it exceeded them! The album is amazing! Enjoy it friend o/

First Borknagar album I listen to. The cover got me, I am a sucker for good covers.
This album is really above anything else that came out this year IMO, and it could easily become AOTY, time is running out.
Vocals on Up North are marvelous, that thing the drummer does on the ride too.
I like that every song has a different tempo, it is a very dinamic album.
I give it a perfect 10, I will spin it again a few times to see if it is really worth it, but it really made my day.

I would like to get into more Borknagar, which album would you guys suggest me to listen to?

Listen to the previous one, Winter Thrice, it's also outstanding.

But I think this new one tops it, what an outstanding fucking piece of art.

Great melodic album, softer as latest one, but they had band post BM period character just more clean singing, still old band, calm melodies, true old north farts still delivers

Repetitive and simple AF... ...but I love it.

Written by EXEbeast on 27.09.2019 at 12:44

The album is perfect and EPIC. They exceeded every expectation I had!

Same here!

I need to give this a spin!

Very different to any kind of black metal I've listen to - much more melodic and softer, but whilst retaining the trademark feeling of coldness and meloncholy.

Overall, a surprise, but pretty damn good.

8.5/10 leaning towards an 8.

Written by nonZero on 01.10.2019 at 14:23

Very different to any kind of black metal I've listen to - much more melodic and softer, but whilst retaining the trademark feeling of coldness and meloncholy.

Overall, a surprise, but pretty damn good.

8.5/10 leaning towards a 9.

coldness and melanholy is the point if you come from place you need to be able play such music to survive.....

May just be my favourite Borknagar album, and I've been a fan forever.

I really enjoyed the previous two albums and this one is at least on that level. Vortex and Nedland's vocals are excellent, so much so that I barely regret Vintersorg's departure. The production and overall sound haven't really changed but both are finely crafted this time as well.

The biggest drawback is that some songs eventually begin to meander until they just kind of stop without a distinct ending. There are a lot of memorable moments but some restructuring would have helped, or a little less filler, or some more breathing room at the endings, or nearly anything else.

edit: I've had Up North stuck in my head for about a month straight. It won't leave.

Wow ! Just started to listening to this, and it sound amazingly!

I never had listened to Borknagar very seriously, just a random spin in a couple of tracks here and there, and never got my attention.... well, until now.

This just made my day!

Based on the comments, album rating, and general acclaim from reviewers across the board, it would seem I'm in the extreme minority when I say this is awkward and laughable. I see words like "progressive" and "forward-thinking" but I'm not sure what exactly people are referring to as most of these tracks are conventionally written and formulaic, not to mention incredibly cheesy. At first I thought I was out of the loop of some meme with all these comments about it being cold and melancholic but apparently people feel a legitimate sense of northern frostbitten sadness when listening to this somehow.

I might be a bit biased because i hate Vortex's vocals, but it sounds like a lame cousin of Arcturus. it was progressive, but 20 years ago.

Written by sogrom on 27.10.2019 at 22:32

I might be a bit biased because i hate Vortex's vocals, but it sounds like a lame cousin of Arcturus. it was progressive, but 20 years ago.

Progressive is sound nowadays, IF you wanna progress try make country core, jazz core and tell its prog metal

There are some good tracks on this album. I liked the ''Into The White'' for example. But I didn't get the prog side of it and some songs are really boring IMO. I can say this is not my kind..

Written by Troy Killjoy on 27.10.2019 at 22:05

incredibly cheesy.

Bingo.

This album bloooowwwws. It's like Dream Theater playing black metal after Mike Portnoy got kicked in the head.

This is a below average album with only a few songs like Up North, Lights and Voices sticking out. The clean vocals do not go with the harsher ones. The guitar work is uninspiring. Not good.

"Up North" drew me to this band. I was bored of every other Borknagar work. This catchy-mainstream-filthy no-true-north song say it as you like, blew my brains. "Thunderous", "The Fire That Burns" and "Voices" were also noteworthy.

I love Vintersorg Vocals.... but this albuns is another level ..... and "Up North" is the best song of Borknagar imho...... "voices" close the album with perfection!

This is hardly black metal is it?

My personal Top 3 songs from the album:

Thunderous
Up North
Voices