Rating: 9/10
Release: 21 December 2016
Label: Independent

If you are a fan of the podcast then you know I recently played a new single from Sweden’s Midvinterblot called “Hörgr” and I thought that was going to be it for a while. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong as they just dropped a whole new debut album entitled “Skymning” and have blown my mind in the process. With a title reminiscent of their last EP (“Gryning”-“Dawn”), “Skymning” (or “Twilight”) picks up where they left off with also adding tons of other surprises in the process. Style wise they remind me a lot of a mix of older Grimner and Amorphis with hints of other violin driven acts like Isenmor. I was even reminded of one of the most important albums in the development of folk metal as a sub genre….1994’s “Nordavind” by Storm (collaboration by Satyr from Satyricon and Fenriz of Darkthrone) I guess what I am trying to say is this album has a very old school/retro/classic feel about it and that is definitely a good thing to me. They are not strictly violin driven as far as folk instruments go, there is also various woodwind instruments in here as well, flute I would say and others not as apparent. A total of 10 tracks here (9 plus obligatory instrumental intro) total just over 41 minutes of listening, you will definitely get a lot more out of this than just the elapsed time. With this many members (I count 7) you know this could be a disaster but the compositions are cohesive and layered for everyone to have their space.
I found myself having to listen somewhat 3 dimensionally as there was so many interesting things going on behind the primary action…..percussion, bass, acoustic guitar,choral vocals plus more, all creating a splendid back drop and being as intriguing as the up front action. All of the tracks are presumably sung in Swedish with the exception of one track in English (“Northern Lights”) which is nice to see that they can do it, but I may prefer the Swedish tracks (as I usually do when bands do one or the other). I am not sure how many of the band members are involved in the song writing process but it seems there are numerous styles on display which leads me to believe everyone has a voice. There are some nice folky, mellower tracks as well as up tempo headbangers, a little for everyone.
All in all a super debut. Solid production and a mix on par with most definitely help the overall impact here. Looking at my favorite debuts over the last few years and it seems that most of them don’t stick to just one style and tend to be pretty diverse. Midvinterblot fits right into the template for a contender for debut of the new year, yes I don’t care if I downloaded it in 2016, that doesn’t count… great album.

Tracklist

1. Intro 01:27
2. Eldföda 04:04
3. Natthamn 04:01
4. Dènya 04:55
5. Gammeldans 04:08
6. Hörgr 04:12
7. Trollbryggd 03:54
8. Northern Lights 04:34
9. Munskölj 03:25
10. Skymning 06:29