I have to admit I haven’t listened to a lot of Black Metal lately. I’m not too sure why but my recent diet of Metal has been mainly in Power, Speed, Prog, and Traditional styles. I thought it was a good time to get back into Black Metal by reviewing the very first release by Jotunspor entitled Gleipnirs Smeder. Jotunspor features two ex-Gorgoroth members but the music stays mainly in the Pagan Black Metal style characterized by purposely repetitive riffing and rhythms to invoke specific imagery and atmospheres. Jotunspor is at times very successful in their execution but the release as a whole is uneven.

Out of all the Black Metal sub-genres (and there’s a lot of them these days, especially when factoring in all the recent exterior influences) I would say the Pagan version is perhaps my favorite. Somewhat started, but at the very least mostly influenced by, mid-period Bathory this sub-genre (if you agree it exists) has been pushed forward by the likes of Primordial, Berserk, Himinbjorg and Graveland to varying degrees of the success and execution. The basis behind the music though largely stays the same from band to band and Jotunspor, at its core is no different. The songs found within are all at a decent length albeit the overall CD is rather short. You can basically split the CD between the actual, fully developed songs and the rather underdeveloped rest of the CD. Gleipnirs Smeder, Freke Han Renn, Sol Mun Svartne, and Ginnungagalder are the fully developed songs and they all work rather well. There is a good combination of repetitive fast riffing and mid-paced to slow doom and gloom riffs. Everything is kept simple with deliberate and well thought-out tempo changes in every song. Multiple vocal styles are also used. As opposed to being chaotic with ever changing vocal styles they’re used for specific sections for extended periods (rather than switching back and forth). Everything from traditional high to mid-range Black Metal vocals are used along with quality clean vocals which are done in a similar style to many other Viking Metal and Pagan Black Metal bands. Extra doses of atmosphere and imagery formation come via very subtle group chanting in the back ground. It’s so subtle you barely notice it’s there when used and it kind of blends into the overall sound of the music (which is a good thing) and then is coupled with some rapsy spoken word. Plenty of sound effects are also used that can perhaps be considered influenced by Industrial. Essentially you have subterranean cave sound effects along with what sounds like hammer’s hitting black smith anvils and various other sound effects which tend to evoke the aforementioned Pagan imagery. All of it goes beyond gimmicky and helps to add a good degree of atmosphere to the proceedings. Despite the riffs being inherently repetitive from the song to song they are rather varied as they use various Black Metal influences and even a legitimate Slayer esque Thrash break in Freke Han Renn to great effect.

I actually don’t have any real issues with the above mentioned songs. The atmosphere is nice helped along by a deeper than usual guitar tone and the vocals are well done from all aspects, the problem is the remainder of the CD which is as uneven as it gets. The 2nd song Svartalvheims Djup is 7 minutes of cave sounds and vocal gurgling. The track is pointless to be sure, especially as a 2nd song. I could see it working as a 1 minute interlude or as an intro to a song but as it stands… useless. Secondly, the last song on the track listing features military styled snare drum over minimal instrumentation with some vocals. The atmosphere isn’t bad here but just drags on and on as build up after build up with no pay off. Once again, if this was used as a short interlude or an intro, great, but the for basis of a song within an already short CD length… not so good.

So all in all this band shows a lot of promise. They have a lot of good ideas to enhance an already excellent atmosphere created by the guitars and rhythms. I just wish there was more fully developed music on this release. Also, as nice as the slower, doom moments were, the band was much more effective with rolling double bass runs and blast beats. A nice debut and recommended to fans of the genre, but passer-bys may want to avoid.