Time for some more Norwegian black metal to grace the pages of this zine. Iskald were formed in 2005 and this is their sixth full length opus. What do we have here? There are eight songs on this one being divided into four invocations, namely invocations I, II, III and Final invocation. The music is melodic black metal, but more technical and well played, almost kinda reminding me of later days Emperor. There are lots of atmospheric keyboard and some acoustic song parts, tempo changes and enough melody and aggression to remind us why we love black metal so much as an expression of emotions and aggression at the same time, channeling your inner darkness. Lyrics are in English and are of more personal nature, dealing with battling your inner and outer demons, hope, loss and depression, as far as I understood them like that. This is not your typical in your face raw black metal, although it has some blast beat parts, this is finer goods. Vocals are black metal screaming but not theatrical or bordering with parody, but serious business fitting perfectly to the song structures. My personal favorites: A Burden Of Hope, The Sacrifice. Go check this one if you are into smartly written and played black metal.
8/10
