Review: Árstíðir Lífsins – Hermalausaz

Genres: pagan black metal (mixed vocals, Icelandic lyrics)
Recommended for fans of: Moonsorrow, Kampfar, Winterfylleth, Panopticon
Country: international (Iceland, Germany)
Release date: 21 December 2023

In the midst of black metal’s violence, there is beauty. For every pummeling blast beat, gnarled guitar, and eviscerating shriek, an inkling of magnificent power overwhelms the senses. Cathartic and sublime, the best black metal mimics nature—standing atop a large mountain, being punished by a stormy sea, hearing the colossal groans of a glacier, growing delirious in the desert’s scorching heat. Hailing from Iceland and Germany, Árstíðir Lífsins use longform song structures and beautiful Norse poetry in order to invoke the power of nature.

Only two tracks long, Hermalausaz seems like a short EP until you notice that both tracks are over twenty minutes… only nominally an EP, though perhaps it makes sense considering the band’s LPs typically run well over sixty-five minutes. On this new EP, both tracks are pleasantly adventurous, venturing between archaic folkloric passages and icier second wave black metal influences, taking me from place to place on epic Scandinavian adventures. Altogether, Hermalausaz is closest in sound to pagan black metal acts like Moonsorrow, and just like Moonsorrow, the epic form of Árstíðir Lífsins’s songs amplifies their quality, allowing for the tracks to tell complete tales at once rather than less expressive, sprawling traditional songs.

The first track, “Ýrr,” has everything I want from pagan black metal: gentle acoustic passages, pummeling black metal, varied mixed vocals, and surprisingly good production. Most unique to Árstíðir Lífsins’s sound is the sonorous clean vocals of Marsél whose rich bass voice wonderfully contrasts with his shrieks, especially when harmonized with others chorally. The production is certainly impactful for Marsél’s voice, emphasizing the low end of the band’s sound unlike most black metal which feels particularly treble heavy. On Hermalausaz, we can hear the bass strings, the blasting of the bass drum, and the booming deep cleans just as clearly as the higher registers—the production is rich and appropriate. 

Between the stellar clean vocal and acoustic sections, however, is a relentless black metal that focused listening deems fairly uninspired. Árstíðir Lífsins write music for daydreaming of Viking raids or sledding down glaciers, and while zoning out you only notice the overall swells of the song, a rich, adventurous storytelling arc; yet when trying to focus on each moment, Árstíðir Lífsins devolves into sounding quite standard, the same as any other atmospheric black metal band in a hail of tremeloes, shrieks, and blast beats. These extended sections of black metal are technically quite proficient, especially the drumming, but they sound less inspired than the folkier—dare I say proggy—bits. With that step backwards to view the whole thing, Hermalausaz is a cathartic adventure across fields, fjords, and seas, but in most of the individual moments it’s just your everyday atmoblack. 

The other track, “Þistill,” adds in some more prominent viola as a timbral change that works quite well to stave off some of the black metal’s textural monotony, but shortly after, the black metal returns to increasingly uninteresting modern atmoblack. However, the nonlinearity of the songwriting is a storytelling strength, and the difficulty of predicting when a folk section will appear staves off some of the predictability of the black metal sections, allowing me to continue to dream of what inspired the Icelandic band.

Indeed, for once I wish I could understand the lyrics. As the Bandcamp blurb describes, “The lyrics are written in Old Norse poetic form and are highly inspired by the cryptic runic inscription of the western Norwegian Eggja rune stone, as well as selected Skaldic poetry.” I’m sure knowing more about Norse poetry would dramatically increase my enjoyment, but alas, they’re just a fitting musical background sound. I thought I’d love this EP more than I did, but it’s still wonderful to get lost in, especially as the snow starts coming in these winter months.

Recommended tracks: Þistill
You may also like: Finsterforst, Auðn, Helrunar
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Label: Ván Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Árstíðir Lífsins is:
– Árni (drums, guitars, bass, string instruments, effects, vocals)
– Stefán (guitars, bass, vocals)
– Marsél (vocals, narration)