Galar - De gjenlevende

Galar De gjenlevende cover
Galar
De gjenlevende
Dark Essence Records
2015
7
After more than a decade and two full-length albums, one in 2006 and the other in 2010, the time has come for these Norwegian extreme metalers to present their third and most cohesive work to date. The large gaps between their releases show that they work extensively on their music and they do not fancy releasing albums just for the sake of it.
 
Galar – or the leading duo which consists of M. Kristiansen (screams, guitars and bass) and A. B. Lauritzen (clean vocals, bassoon and grand piano) if you prefer – are blending the rawness & the extremeness of the 90s Norwegian black metal with melodic, folk, atmospheric, symphonic, epic and Viking elements. Their tracks are mostly long and have various mood and tempo changes on the whole. The drums again have been recorded by the drummer Elefterios “Phobos” Santorinios (Aeternus, Gravdal) and the band was also joined by a string quintet and a horn quartet on the recordings. You do not easily get such diversity and music variations on black metal bands especially today. The production is great and the album was recorded at Conclave & Earshot Studio with Bjornar E. Nilsen (Vulture Industries).
 
The main and strong point Galar have is their well-crafted orchestrations. Their music, as I said earlier, is very mature, complete & melodic and it blends nicely with their extreme & aggressive moments. The truth is that such kind of albums used to be released in the late 90s/early 00s especially from Scandinavia, but now they are hard to find anymore. Those who are fond of this kind of sound and have missed the old Scandi days will find comfort on this release for sure. Personally, I would fancy even less black metal features and more symphonic, atmospheric and melodic ones… but the band seems to progress with each new album, so I think that their next release will be in that direction…