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By JEFF MAKI
Harvest is the latest slab of hellish, blackened death metal from the long running Swedish band Naglfar. With the velocity and gnarly vocals of black metal, a deathly demeanor and all of its Satanic glory, Harvest is another essential release for the extreme metal masses.
Harvest follows 2005's Pariah and is Naglfar's second album to feature bassist-turned-vocalist Olivius, who founded the band in 1992. Olivius' vocals are demonic in every sense and quite what you'd expect from a band such as Naglfar. The best comparison is to their Swedish counterparts Necrophobic. Naglfar infuse elements of death, black and thrash while retaining a faint sense of melody. The heinously evil guitar tone of Andreas Nilsson is an homage to all things unholy and fucking heavy.
The intense rage of “Odium Generis Humani” contains a mid-section reminiscent of Slayer's “Dead Skin Mask.” I could picture an army of undead pumping their fists to the black metal anthem “The Darkest Road,” which is a searing combination of blast beats, a menacing guitar riff and Olivius' most convincing and lethal vocals. Around this centerpiece, Naglfar shows the listener no mercy. The ominous piano intro to “Feeding Moloch” yields to the fastest piece of the album with staggering guitar work. The title track closes with one of the few mid-tempo arrangements, backed by keyboards and some slower, chugging death riffs. And don't miss the acoustic guitar and piano outro on this one. This song would have been right at home on In Flames' Lunar Strain or Subterranean releases—excellent. In the realm of extreme metal, Harvest is nearly flawless in every aspect.
Naglfar are another Swedish metal force, and Harvest is one of the more prominent extreme metal efforts of 2007. Playing music this brutal and fast must make it hard to incorporate memorable ideas to make songs interesting and stand alone. Naglfar does this with an undeniably evil twist like few others can.
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