Band:	Ereb Altor
Album:	Nattramn
Style:	Pagan black metal, Doom metal
Release date:	April 24, 2015
A review by:	Windrider

01. The Son Of Vindsvalr
02. Midsommarblot
03. Nattramn
04. The Dance Of The Elves
05. Dark Waters
06. Across The Giant's Blood
07. The Nemesis Of Frei

From Gefle, Sweden hail Ereb Altor, a band playing a mix of pagan and black metal, with their new album Nattramn. Many people compare them with the almighty Bathory, their epic and pagan era to be precise. If this holds true we shall find out, but what can already be said is that the music is indeed epic.

On Nattramn can be found many facets and influences of other bands; actually, the best thing about this work is that it blends in different styles with a constantly high level of musicianship. While the pace is basically mid-tempo all the time, the instruments and vocals work together as one unit to bring the various styles together. With a running time of less than three-quarters of an hour it is definitely shorter than your average album within that genre, but brevity is the soul of wit, which is no less true for Nattramn than for last year's big surprise From The Dead Villages' Darkness by Sivyj Yar.

So now that it has been talked a lot about different styles on this album, what exactly are they? First of all there is a huge pagan and folk influence, as heard for example on the first two tracks. The opener "Midsommarblot" is a hymn that works a lot with melodic guitars and acoustic support. After some seconds the rhythm drifts into a doomish kind of epicness. Later in the song the bass drum gains importance, which foreshadows of the coming songs. The title track then stands exemplary for the other huge influence of Ereb Altor, that is mid-tempo black metal resembling the good old Darkthrone and Immortal times.

Until now I haven't mentioned the most interesting part of it, namely the vocals. There are three vocalists in the band that each have their duty. We can hear both clean and harsh vocals, while the clean ones can be separated into epic singing known from pagan metal and a theatre-like voice that lets me think of Falconer somehow, although the pitch isn't as high. The harsh vocals are well understandable and sound mostly like Abbath on epic mode. The variation in vocals actually is the least accessible thing on this album, but after some spins it's a key factor that makes it so good. One of the weaker points, however, is the lyrics. When on the title track it goes like, "From east to west, from dusk till dawn," it somehow sounds like a hip-hop / gothic combination and on "The Dance Of The Elves" the following can be heard: "We're invisible, can't you see?"... what could be wrong with that one?

But back to other good things, which are the guitar leads and solos like on the last mentioned track. Although the melodies are nothing outstanding by themselves, in combination with the other instruments they give a good feeling. So, is there some Bathory in Ereb Altor? Yes. Can they rival Quorthon's gifts for us peasants? No. However, they deliver a great album which never gets boring due to the different styles and shouldn't be missing in good collections.