Lizardtail has found it, Misha already knows about it, so I give now to you all the secret band I've been keeping just for myself these last few months (ever since I downloaded their 2003 promo cd).
Solstafir - Masterpiece Of Bitterness Spinefarm
file under different metalA band which call their debut album 'Masterpiece Of Bitterness' and opens the same debut with a twenty minutes track, blazes of self-confidence. Four marked faces look me straight into the eyes indeed in the middle of a geyser landscape. For Solstafir comes from Iceland. And they can keep this title, for this is a true masterpiece that got me in its grip from the very first spin. In the meantime I can imagine every innovative twist of this music.
Some write and cross out work happened this time. Spontaneously bubbling up feelings were not sufficient to catch this pulsing universe of enthralling sounds in words. Solstafir makes music that mirrors their home country: impulsive, intact and savage, explosive, steaming primeval powers united in mathematic structures. Let us take the first song 'I Myself The Visionary Head as an example. Be a bit patient with the screaming lady at the beginning, but then this pass into the rough essence of the band: ponderous bass lines and repetitive guitar-lines surrounded by various drawn out slightly psychedelic sounds, hectic drums and primordial screams, a bit suggestive of Neurosis. Thoughtful riffs dominate more and more. Hypnotic riffs, ebbing away every time and beautified by skilled, very melodious soloing. Mighty whirling of empyrean beauty, twenty minutes long! This has the compression of a Primordial, the natural roughness of Thyrfing and the unpredictability of their home geysers.
Though this is the first album, the band exists since 1993-94 and earlier they released a few demos and 7" records. They did a long journey to Helsinki to master this album at the Finnvox Studios. The band started their activities in the heathen black metal scene, but evolved over the years to something quite unique. Sometimes, a bit of these black metal roots still can be heard in pithy accelerations and things become hunky all the way when wah wah guitars are on top of those devastating speeds. 'Bloodsoaked Velvet' which made it to a Spine/Spikefarm Records compilation makes me consider: the desert sessions are now taking place on the sweeping plains of Iceland! Huge parts of this album are instrumental, only incidentally pierced through by icy screams. A healthy dose of psychedelics is presents and increases the very spatial and grand feeling. Yet it never induces sound-anarchism. There is a kind of link with bands such as …And They Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and Mogwai. For 'Masterpiece Of Bitterness' has equal parts volcanic eruption and ice. That is why this album will appeal to fans of extreme metal as well as the (heavier) alternative rock.
source :
http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showreview.p ... 80&lang=en
