Check out my album of the week right here (Kvelertak – Nattesferd) with a direct link to a Spotify playlist so your lazy asses can click right off them phones and start playing it right then and there. It’s the future!
Norwegian punk rock metal warriors Kvelertak have released their third studio effort with ‘Nattesferd’. Known for utilizing a dizzying array of styles, blasting from black metal to punk rock, usually within the same song, it sounds like Kvelertak are aiming for a more mainstream classic 80’s hair metal sound now… But with you know, with Erlend Hjelvik’s signature growly vocals layered on top. I don’t know what the shit is going on right now because I’m getting touches of Foreigner and Boston throughout the effort but with a death metal guy doing the singing. It’s weird as shit but I dig it.
Imagine yourself growing up in the 1980’s and THIS was the kind of crazy shit they played on the radio. Every single song on ‘Nattesferd’ sounds like it could have very well been played on mainstream radio stations – but that it was acceptable for screaming the lyrics like a demon. It works, it adds a nostalgic vibe to the record and yet the songs are still heavy as hell even though the metal arrangements have been mostly dropped in favour of classic rock.
I’m not sure if every Kvelertak fan is going to dig this effort as much as myself, but the band was already so diverse, so strange, but still so badass in their own way that the move doesn’t surprise me when I really begin to analyse the big change-up in style. They already utilized several punk elements in the past, so evolving this way is only natural. Maybe for their fourth record, Kvelertak will incorporate grunge elements as they head into the 90’s… Actually that sounds wicked.
I usually dig the bands in Norway that steer towards folk influences but Kvelertak aren’t lumped into that category at all. They are definitely bizarre, they are most certainly Norwegian and they absolutely kick ass. ‘Nattesferd’ is a nice surprise and one that I look forward to dissecting in the months to come.