Ereb Altor
The End
Napalm Records

It would be easy to dismiss Ereb Altor’s second effort ‘The End’ as self-indulgent tosh – because it is – but given that the band is a side project formed by two parts of over-wrought doomy proggers Isole, this should come as no surprise. To be fair to the pair of them, there are no half measures here; right from the opening ‘The Entering (Myrding Prologue)’ this is full-on Bathory worship, and unashamedly revelling in it. This is a labour of love and a dear homage to the gods of doom, not only Bathory but the likes of My Dying Bride and Candlemass too, and nothing is going to get in the way of that fact.

The Bathorian strains imbued by Ereb Altor are largely lyrical and sentimental, the faux-patriotism of their Viking ancestry and the obvious fantastical and mythical extrapolations. The music is altogether slower in nature, taking on the form of blackened doom and complete with the grandiose leanings that both these factors lend themselves to so well. It all gets a full workout in the likes of ‘Our Failure’ and ‘A New But Past Day’, but with decidedly less impact than they really should.

The overt Viking influences become a little too clichéd and pompous in the closing 25 minute triptych that forms the centrepiece of the album, in particular the dreadfully cringing voice-overs bad enough to elicit howls of pain as they recount magical deeds and heroic deaths. It might be taking its cue from some of the best music in the metal sphere, but ‘The End’ is really just a drab affair; this is a lifeless meandering trawl through two people’s fantasy that I at least, even as a devout follower of doom, find no connection with or love for.

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Review by Dominic Hemy