Dødheimsgard - Kronet Til Konge
Century Media
Black Metal
12 songs (54:08)
Release year: 1995
Dødheimsgard, Century Media
Reviewed by Goat
Archive review

The beginning of Norway’s most infamous Avant-Garde Post-Black Metallers came here, a very thinly-produced blast of old-school darkness that featured the one and only Fenriz of Darkthrone fame on bass! Interestingly, the bass is actually easier to hear at times than the guitars, and whilst the production is pretty poor, this is high quality material. Without a doubt, the best thing about Kronet Til Konge is Aldrahn’s vocals. Rather than the typical Black Metal scream, his voice is a deep shout that varied between angry bellows and damaged croaks, some screams and clean singing as well. Where many Black Metal vocalists of the era seem rather silly in retrospect, there’s something more to Aldrahn’s performance here, an intensity apparent that grabs your focus as the music blurs in the background. He reminds me at times of Martin Walkyier – a necro version of the Skyclad/Sabbat man, for sure, but that ferocity and lyrical spirit is there; the lyrics on the few songs written in English are astonishingly poetical for a non-English speaker.

From the first listen to the album it’s obvious that the band are taking a leftfield approach to the genre. Songs are interesting if similar, one example being Midnattsskogens Sorte Kjerne, starting off gently and getting heavy, the drumming especially – provided by Vicotnik – out of the ordinary. It would be a mistake to think that Kronet Til Konge is especially experimental, however, especially when compared to later releases from Dødheimsgard. This is still relatively pure Black Metal, blastbeats and atmospheric riffs galore, but compare it to other famous Norwegian releases of the time – Darkthrone’s Panzerfaust, say – and the willingness to evolve, to experiment is clear.

Kronet Til Konge isn’t really a classic – it’s hard to listen to due to the similarity of the songs, something that doesn’t go away until you’ve listened to the album a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean, many many times – and whilst concentrating on Aldrahn’s voice makes for a unique experience, few would recommend it as a good place to start with 90s Norwegian Black Metal; if anyone mentioned them at all, that is. Dødheimsgard have a poor reputation nowadays amongst Black Metal elitists; someone on this site’s forum referred to them as the Black Metal version of Slipknot, which suggests that he either hasn’t heard recent Dødheimsgard or has never heard Slipknot. Still, if you’re reasonably well-versed in Norsk Blek Mettle and want to expand the horizons a little, then Dødheimsgard are a band impossible to ignore, and Kronet Til Konge is a vital slice of their history. Just don’t expect mind-blowing genius… yet.

Killing Songs :
Å Slakte Gud, Midnattsskogens Sorte Kjerne, Mournful Yet And Forever, When Heavens End
Goat quoted 76 / 100
Other albums by Dødheimsgard that we have reviewed:
Dødheimsgard - Black Medium Current reviewed by Goat and quoted 90 / 100
Dødheimsgard - A Umbra Omega reviewed by Goat and quoted 90 / 100
Dødheimsgard - Supervillain Outcast reviewed by Goat and quoted 82 / 100
Dødheimsgard - 666 International reviewed by Goat and quoted CLASSIC
Dødheimsgard - Satanic Art reviewed by Goat and quoted no quote
To see all 7 reviews click here
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