Svartsot
Mulmets Viser
Napalm Records

Svartsot’s latest offering ‘Mulmets Viser’ is being released on the same day and label as the new Heidevolk album, and I could almost write the same review for this album as I have just done for that so similar are the two. Here we have yet another band trying to cash in on the winning formula devised by the likes of Finntroll and Ensiferum, and still falling into the same pitfalls as those before.

When Svartsot go mad with the folk overtones, such as the highlights ‘Højen På Glødende Pæle’ and ‘Laster Og Tarv’ with their jig-inducing whistled melodies playing perfect counterfoil to the monstrous guitars, they are good. But all too often, such as with ‘På Odden Af Hans Hedenske Sværd’ and ‘Kromandens Datter’, they morph into this dull mid-paced metal band with no identity and no redeeming features.

It is the continued and prominent use of various whistles that keeps the album going for the duration of its 50 minutes, at their best the main focus of the music and carrying the track along like the pied piper leading the children; right from ‘Æthelred’ all the way through to ‘I Salens Varme Glød’, they would all be poorer for the lack of them, and equally they are noticeable by their absence in ‘Lokkevisen’ and ‘Lindisfarne’.

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Review by Dominic Hemy