Norse – Hellstorm (2010)

Hailing from Australia, today we have Norse, a young band that plays Viking/Melodic Death Metal with a vengeance. These Aussies are ready to break shit and waste no time in doing so with the Amon Amarth sounding first track “Hellstorm”. All through the album the same level of intensity is consistent, and we completely love that.

The band is heavily influenced by Amon Amarth (and similar Nordic mythology influenced Black/Death Metal bands) as we can tell from the way their music sound, the cover art, and the song names. But make no mistake and think that Norse is just a cheap clone of previously mentioned bands; they are pretty good at creating original music that stands by itself.

Most riffs in this album are very powerful and create a very epic battle atmosphere when paired with the clean and harsh vocals. But, we have riffs like the opening riff and chorus riff of the song “Father Of The Norns” that sounds extremely familiar. Besides this, most of the music in this album sounds fresh and not rehashed from other releases.

The vocal work is also top notch, the variety of harsh vocals will keep listener engaged, and the use of clean vocals adds to the epicness of the music. We have to say again that the vocals sound A LOT like Johan Hegg, except for the lower pitched screams utilized here and there.

The drumming in the entire album is pretty consistent and rhythmical, but has some sections that it goes full speed and paired with the riffs, we have some parts that sound like something a Black Metal band would come up. However, the overall tempo changes work very well with this band’s music and bring the music together very nicely.

In general, we are greatly impressed by Norse and “Hellstorm”. This band obviously has talent and musical skills, but the thing that disturbs us a bit is that they sound A LOT like A.A. and other Viking Metal bands. And while their music is original and never feels re-hashed, we can’t stop thinking of other bands instead of Norse. We hope this band finds its own style in the next few years and keeps making great music. For now, “Hellstorm” has gained a spot right next to my A.A. CD’s, a very impressive feat, considering A.A. is one our my favorite bands.

Release: March 5th, 2010

Country: Australia