Rimfrost - Veraldar Nagli
Rimfrost hails from Sweden, which means that they think “Rimfrost” sounds fiendish and pagan rather than just apocalyptically uncomfortable. It also means that they never quite got the memo that thrash died a quarter century ago. The first track on this, their second full length, is called, “Veraldar Nagli,” and it starts out full bore ranting like something off Kill ‘Em All or Reign in Blood.
In fact, the melody line (if you want to call it that) actually sounds lifted in parts from “Piece by Piece.” The production is clear; every rapid-fire guitar chop and amphetamine-fueled drum-volley in place, and the arrangements have those awesome classic proggy tinges that get you snapping your head around like you’re going to dislocate your spine. “The Raventhrone” is more of the same, the whole song built out of motifs you know and love; the yes-we-are-fucking-tight-tight-tight instantaneous stop-time moment ten seconds in; awesomely cheesy D&D lyrics (“prophesies ending/ while I am descending”); a little bass riff accent that almost seem like a shout-out to Cliff Burton; the ranting rush that gets faster and faster and then is mugged by the slower bridge with stomping heaviness while the guitars still skitter through their chords like unstoppable jackhammers — and then at the end all of a sudden we switch into solid blackness, a buzzing, sweeping drone, until the final two seconds adds in one more tight thrashy series of chords before the song ends.
That’s a good summary of why Rimfrost is more than just a great nostalgia exercise. Though they obviously worship the blackened pit that spawned Lars and Hanneman, they’re not afraid to update their idols. Rimfrost’s singer (a guy who just goes by "Hravn"), for example, definitely has the blood-spattered-cookie-monster-springing-out-of-your-larynx thing going on, and some of the riffs (like that on “Mountains of Mána”) are thicker and clotted in a way that recalls Deicide as much as Slayer. Similarly, the first half of the preposterously named “Scandinavium” sounds like Darkthrone and Metallica duking it out on some burnt and twisted heath, the music lurching from propulsive riffs to howling noise, with a couple of moments (like the intro) that slow down enough to almost function as atmospheric doom. “Legacy Through Blood” even draws an unexpected parallel between dicey Metallica ballads like “Enter Sandman” and the heavy plod of doomy shoegaze (doomgaze?) outfits like Daylight Dies or Isis.
Good as they are, Rimfrost never actually manages to supplant their sources. They don’t have (early) Metallica’s gigantically twisted sense of structure, or Slayer’s fearsome propulsion. Still, it’s pretty exciting to see a contemporary extreme metal band doing thrash and doing it right without sounding either like a museum piece or like a grunge band that drank a case of brewski, shoved a pole up its ass, and somehow ended up in Hades instead of Albuquerque (and yes, I’m talking to you, High on Fire.) It’d be great to think that Rimfrost might be a portent of things to come, and that sometime in the near future we’re going to see a retro thrash Marduk or the equivalent. Even if Veraldar Nagli is just an aberration, though, it’s certainly a welcome one.
Recommended Tracks: “Veraldar Nagli,” “The Raventhrone,” “Scandinavium”
