Hermóðr / Is - When the Frost Has Stopped the Time

HERMODR / IS - When the Frost Has Stopped the Time (WOLFSPELL Records - split CD 2015)

Oh man, this dude from Hermóðr is really fuckin crazy and busy if he has time, energy and ideas to record and release so many songs every year. 2015 brought us one full length, some EPs and now also a couple of new splits! And I know also that the new album is also ready and coming in few months! This is a productive mind haha! But the best thing is that so far all stuff, which I’ve heard from Hermóðr (I don’t mention Rafn’s other projects, as I know Deadlife only – which is also a very nice music!) was excellent. Wolfspell Records just released Hermóðr split with Is and again I can say that I feel really impressed and love this CD totally. I played it many times last week and surely I will be playing it even more times in the future.

Hermóðr brings two very long songs on this split. “Från en annan tid” and “Dömd” are eleven and twelve minutes long anthems of sorrow, grief, melancholy and nostalgia. These songs are very slow, with an intention to create the feelings I just mentioned as well as dark atmosphere and not necessarily the black metal aggression and harshness. There’s strong melodic base on the music, good cooperation between the guitars and keyboards. And even if the song which lasts for so many minutes may sound slightly monotonous (with multiple repetition of one motif, etc), it still has no sign of boredom. And that’s simply because Hermóðr is doing a great job when speaking of the ability of creating the depressive, melancholic sound. It obviously has also this hypnotizing effect, it drags attention immediately and kind of puts charm on you. It’s easily listenable, atmospheric depressive, melodic black metal – that’s what you should know about Hermóðr. And also that this is very good project and I am sure that you will enjoy it also. I am waiting to hear more from Rafn.

And now Is. This is another one man project, from Russia - what is quite unexpected location. Nøkken stands behind it and it looks like he’s also very productive dude, if within one year he managed to put out so many songs and releases (but sadly most of them are digital). “When the Frost Has Stopped the Time” is actually one of his earlier 2015 digital releases, now unleashed on physical, CD format, which is great, as I don’t care for all these “invisible albums or EPs” haha! Three songs are here and one thing is certain – Is fits Hermóðr like glove to a hand. The music of both bands is very close when speaking of the aura, feelings, etc., with an exception that Is is (haha!) much harsher, noisier and definitely more aggressive. It also has some faster fragments, in song called “When the Frost Has Brought the Silence”, which is great sounding fast and raw black metal with atmospheric background, ambient, keyboards interludes and other such shit. It’s far from being as one dimensional and monotonous as their Swedish companion. This first song is great, but my personal favourite is the second piece called “Through Dusk and Dawn”. It’s actually very similar to Hermóðr’s style, but the song is much shorter. Anyway, it’s slow, atmospheric, dark, raw black metal, with some excellent riffs, very good vocals, fine arrangements and song structure. And the production is also just as it should be. Very good band, indeed.

So, all I can now say is that both Hermóðr and Is did great job on this split CD. It’s released in 500 copies, so do not waste time, just grab a copy now and enjoy some well done atmospheric black metal.

Final rate: 80/100