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Svartalvheim - Demo 2010
Reviewed by Eddie Risdal in 7/26/2010
This is barely an official demo in the old fashioned physical way, but as long as it is a compilation of great songs stuffed together in a zip file available for download we just have to spread the word about it.
As you probably (did not) find out by the band's name, SVARTALVHEIM are from New Zealand. When I first saw the name the first thought that struck my mind was "what a lame name, another foreign band taking a Norwegian name", also I reckoned that they had taken their name from Ancient's debut album. Well, at least the latter was wrong I suppose, as there is very little reminding me of Ancient here. It's more to be heard of a band like Septich Flesh, and maybe a hint of Bal-Sagoth here and there. Pretty brutal and fast death metal, yet always melodic and filled with cleverly played and arranged keyboards, leaving an impression of originality.
The sound and production is impressingly strong for a homemade demo, only the (programmed) drums sound a bit artificial and static at times, still much better than the average for this. The vocals performed by Oli Smith are superb, mostly the low pitch death grunts, with lots of power, occasionally more blackened screams, also of high standards. Credits must also be given for the incorporation of female vocals on "Legacy Of Wolves", even if guest vocalist Ashes doesn't have the strongest voice she fits very good and her somewhat fragile and high pitched voice stands as the perfect contrast. I'd like more of that on a forthcoming album, used with caution and on the right place(s).
Wynand and Oli are currently in the works compiling songs for a full length album, and a record deal should be no problem to fix with these tunes. Really looking forward to the next chapter. In the meantime you can download their demo from:
http://deathmetalinvasion.blogspot.com/search?q=svartalvheim
or visit them on Facebook:
http://www.listn.to/svartalvheim
And there is an additional song, "Ouroboros", on their Myspace player if the four tracks on the demo isn't enough.
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