Hundre Ar Gammal [PA] [Slipcase] (CD - 2008)

Although they hail from Norway, Khold steers clear of the furious, blast-beat-centric black metal of their country's contemporaries. HUNDRE AR GAMMAL is primarily mid-tempo grind, culled from the pummeling influence of 1990s death bands like Carcass. Vocalist Gard provides much of the group's menace, emitting what can best be described as a satanic, gargling growl on top of Khold's slam-dance-worthy doom-and-dirge. Standout tracks like "Forrykt" could almost be mistaken for late-'90s American hardcore, while the seething "Straff" is all overseas black-magic evil sludge. HUNDRE is strangely accessible throughout, but still teeming with merciless grit.

If you surveyed an abundance of black metal artists and asked them what their favorite tempo was, a lot of them would no doubt say fast -- very fast -- and they would note that blastbeats are an important part of the black metal experience for them. But not all black metal bands thrive on lightning-speed tempos and inundate their listeners with blastbeats. Khold, for example, have chosen to inflict much of their brutality at slow and medium tempos, and that approach continues to yield effective results for them on Hundre Ar Gammal ("A Hundred Years Old"). While this 2008 release is not devoid of fast tempos, they are hardly dominant; in fact, they take a back seat to the disc's medium and slow tempos. But whatever tempo Khold opts to embrace, this 36-minute CD is consistently inspired, and the Norwegian band gets the job done nicely on forceful Norwegian-language items such as "Mester og Trell" ("Master and Thrall"), "Straff" ("Punishment"), "Der Kulden Rår" ("When the Cold Reigns") and "Trolos" ("Faithless"). Of course, most of the Khold fans who live outside of Norway don't speak Norwegian, but the good news is that Khold have a lot of non-Norwegian admirers who don't consider Norwegian lyrics a deal breaker. And why should they be? There is no law stating that black metal has to be performed in English to be worthwhile. Some listeners might complain about Hundre Ar Gammal's brevity and wish that the album were 30 or 40 minutes longer, but then, 36 minutes of excitement is certainly preferable to 75 minutes of mediocrity. Hundre Ar Gammal is an excellent addition to Khold's catalog.

~ Alex Henderson minimize