Solefald
Pills Against the Ageless Ills (Century Media)
by Martin Popoff
Three varied albums now for this creatively exploded Norwegian duo, Solefald back with an album less phreaked than Neonism, slicker, classier, more majestically modern black. Sort of a cross between Satyricon, Sigh, and commercial Strapping, the idea here is healthy, fecund musical madness, but the locked discipline of the thing pushes it high-minded and academic. The base is progressive black metal, but there’s an English eccentricity to it, especially in the Peter Hammill-ish/Vintersorg-ian vocals.
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