Alvenrad – ‘Veluws IJzer’ (2022)
Rating: 9/10
Release: 23 September 2022
Label: Independent
At its heart Alvenrad’s sound is a bombastic take on melodic blackened folk metal, but they enrich and elevate it with innovative prog flourishes, orchestral strings, wind instruments and vocals ranging from rasping black metal to soaring clean singing and choral chants. Ever interesting and exciting, now on album number three, Alvenrad continue to push themselves into ever more progressive and creative territory.
Things get off to a promising start on opener, De Stuwwal, which storms out of the blocks with ferocious blast beats and tremolo black metal guitars, but quickly settles into a more palatable melodic folk metal with epic clean vocals, beautiful string arrangements and even a 70s style keyboard part near the end. The rest of the album continues in the same epic and atmospheric vein, but no two songs are the same with each one bringing something new to the table, from the epic string arrangements and flutes of the title track to the Enslaved-esque prog stylings of De Marke and the otherworldly keyboards of Sagenrijk which bring to mind Finland’s Nest.
Alvenrad continue to grow and develop with each passing album and Veluws IJzer is a natural progression for the band, which takes their existing sound and expands it ever further to new levels of creativity and songwriting expertise. Veluws IJzer is dripping with immersive atmosphere and fresh ideas. Not quite essential, but tantalizingly close to it. I have high hopes for album four.
Tracklist
- De Stuwwal
- De Vliegden
- Roodwild
- De Marke
- Veluws IJzer
- Sagenrijk
- De Gevallen Veluwenaar