Ereb Altor – Gastrike (2012)

What do you get when you mix Falkenbach with Moonsorrow and Candlemass? Ereb Altor is the answer. Mixing Viking Metal elements with some Doom, this Swedish band has been constantly releasing albums since 2008 with a few tweaks in-between but nothing really revolutionary. In “Gastrike”, the band delivers seven tracks of catchy guitar-driven tunes that ultimately feel a bit repetitive and quite dull in some points.

Leading with the atmospheric opening section to “The Gathering of Witches”, Ereb Altor nicely transitions into some power riffs and typical Viking Metal elements bordering on the Black Metal side of things. There is a rawness to the band’s sound that is quite nice, but sometimes makes the music feel a bit convoluted. “Dance of Darkness” moves a bit into Doom territory, but the guitars nicely shift back and forth between Black Metal and Doom Metal.

“Dispellation” is one of those very typical songs that might make you think you are listening to Moonsorrow or something like that. The track features nice clean vocals, but the riffing in general is extremely repetitive and gets under your skin very easily. “Boatman’s Call” and “The Mistress of Wisdom” just fly by with nothing memorable as well, the riffing is very typical and the combination of clean vocals and screams gets a bit dull when the melodies are basically all the same.

Closing with “Seven”, the atmosphere in this song makes it at first a bit different from the previous ones, but it ultimately comes back to the riffing hiss and saturated production. We are not fans of highly repetitive music when it’s boring to begin with. Ereb Altor must do something drastic to really change their approach and stop being so dull and repetitive. There are enough musical skills to make a few good moments in this release, but the filler content is what brings their efforts down. We would say skip this one, and get some beer instead.

Release: July 10th, 2012

Genre: Viking/Doom Metal

Country: Sweden