Polish black metal veterans, North, look to unleash a savage sounding black metal blizzard upon the extreme metal world with the release of their new EP. Titled, “We Are, We Remain…,” the upcoming release shall contain some new material, a re-recording of the classic song “Hymn to Winter,” as well as a cover of Bathory’s, “A Fine Day to Die.”
Along with fellow Polish black metal titans Graveland, Sacrilegium and Behemoth, North was part of that undeniably influential black metal scene which saw a plethora of killer releases coming from Poland. North’s 1998 release, “From the Dark Past,” is a truly vicious sounding black metal release featuring some utterly grim riffs and hauntingly ruthless vocal parts. Fans have waited since 2011 for new music from North, so there has been a fair amount of anticipation surrounding the release of this new EP, and I believe a lot of that has to do with North’s strong cult extreme music following.
Listening to the new material I can guarantee fans of merciless sounding black metal will not be disappointed. The riffs on some of the songs are down right scorching in terms of the distorted intensity which the band is able to conjure up. On the opening track, "Czas By Powstali / It's Time For Them Arise,” the band hammers out a deafening onslaught of pestilent guitar parts to create an ominous sounding atmosphere. Also, the vocals really standout on the song and are delivered with such an unapologetically savage black metal attitude.
The other two new tracks “Stulecia We Krwi / Centuries In Blood” and “Horda Duchów / Horde Of Ghosts,” are also a couple decimating pieces of black metal music with some death metal elements added as well. At times the riffs take on an unfathomable brutal sound, but then transition into a more frantic old school black metal style, which displays how talented this band is when coming up with destructive sounding arrangements. I thought the re-recorded version of, “Hymn to Winter,” was extremely impressive as well, because the band was able to maintain the song’s classic pagan black metal tone, but added an even more modern punch in terms of the production quality. I would even say that the drum sound on this new version of the song was very tight sounding and the drummer demonstrated a tremendous amount of talent from behind the kit by pounding out some intense rhythms. For their cover of Bathory’s, “A Fine Day to Die,” I thought they did a solid job covering a classic song which has been covered numerous times before by other black metal bands.
Overall, North’s new EP, “We Are, We Remain…,” is a malevolent black metal creation which maintains an old school black metal mentality in terms of the songwriting and the sound, while also adding some slight modern extreme metal touches. In recent years there have been some black metal bands that have made new albums and for some reason they sound egregiously overproduced and watered down. North’s utterly grim and brutally behemoth black metal sound seems to still be there, and I look forward to seeing if they can build off this album’s sound on future recordings as this is the type of extreme metal music that you desire to hear more of from bands.
Link to where you can order the album :
https://www.pagan-records.com/pl/p/NORTH-We-Are%2C-We-Remain...-CD-PRE-ORDER/13742
North Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/kingdominblood/
