Casiokids

Topp Stemning På Lokal Bar

Nightliner / Universal

Norway’s latest hopes for global success break the mould of previous exports in one notable fashion: they sing in their native tongue. Rather than signifying a greater willingness amongst Anglo-Saxon tastemakers to absorb Norway’s lilting idiom, however, the imminent success of Casiokids is rather testament to the extent to which the other aspects of their [...]

Shining

Blackjazz

Indie Recordings

On their latest album Blackjazz Shining embrace their metal tendencies to such an extent that the whole affair has the air of a calculated project: channeling black metal through their supreme jazz-informed musicianship to produce a semi-conceptual metal record that is not only technically impressive, thought-provoking and boundary-pushing, but also oh-so-fucking heavy and downright scary. [...]

Anne Lene Hägglund

Bird Cherry Grove

Swingaround Records

Sitting on the tram on my way to work, trying to read while my attention seemed drawn more towards the sunshine flowing over the buildings in a winterworn Norwegian capital, gently blinding my eyes and warming my cheeks, I actually thought I’d found a soundtrack for this feeling, at least for a little while. About [...]

Haust / Next Life

Split: Resurrection EP

Fysisk Format

Split albums are a must in almost every hardcore band’s catalogue, and every hardcore geek has at least once bought a split 7″ or 12″ just for rare songs of one adored band, and then found the other side to be another casualty of bad pairing. When No Idea released Hot Water Music’s split, no [...]

Lindstrøm & Christabelle

Real Life Is No Cool

Smalltown Supersound

Real Life Is No Cool is a welcome return to form. These are throwback thrills of the freshest kind, where Feedelity Records’ ‘first lady’ steers away from ‘space’ and firmly towards ‘disco’. A thumping glitchy stomper of a record that gives all the funkier bits of the seventies a distinctly 21st century sheen.

It’s seven years [...]

Happy Dagger

Songs of Shame

Oslo Grammofon

Martha 3:14 recounts something about the impossibility of love for another unless one understands and accepts an original love, that is, love sent from above through the death and life of God’s son, JC. But if one doesn’t accept the original love, the Bible makes you believe that you’ll never fully have the capacity to [...]

Vaiping

Industrial Workers of the World

Karisma Records

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Having witnessed the aural anesthesia of Vaiping live once before, it was with beastliness as a forethought and grim vexation that I agreed to review their sophmore release.
I found them insipid live. Four remarkably amicable, pleasant chaps from the rainy dregs of Stavanger arrived fresh-faced and lucid to display their talents to the [...]

Obliteration

Necropsalms

Fysisk Format

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Rarely these days have death metal releases caught me off-guard. Most of them tread the familiar skunk infested paths of stinky jeans and sour breath infusing itself onto badly recorded/badly mixed/badly written records thrust out onto the pale public via a metal label in Bucharest or perhaps Gdansk. CD covers with indecipherable logos [...]

Skitliv

Skandinavisk Misantropi

Indie Recordings

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Long reviled, understandably hated, doused in adjectives and superlatives, Maniac has long borne the cloak of rebellion and reaction. From the ashes of former band Mayhem which propelled him to the forefront of the foreign media with his intense live-performances (often ending in stages soaked with blood, lawsuits and visits to the ER) [...]

Black Feather

Silhouette

Diger

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I’m from the jungle — so floating epic hymns emanating from Aryan, Christian Northerners not only make me a bit scared, but also glad to not be Jewish. Think World War II. Under the scrutiny of Austrian-Jewish intellectuals outta the Frankfurt school, any sweeping, transcendentalising musics that attempted to lift emotions, Romanticism of the artist, Wagner, Stravinsky, would [...]

Kråkesølv

Trådnøsting

Kråkesølv/Diger

Kråkesølv are four guys hailing from the northern town of Bodø. They have been roaming around Norwegian venues and radio playlists for almost a year now, building up the expectations in front of their debut album, Trådnøsting. And what a debut it is!

Pilemil

If You Make a Lot of Ceramics; Ceramics Will Make a Lot of You as Well

Metronomicon Audio

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If you make a lot of ceramics; ceramics will make a lot of you as well is one of the latest albums from the, Oslo based, Metronomicon Audio community/label. This is the debut album from Pilemil, and according to the press release, the inception of Pilemil was brought about by the coming together [...]

André Borgen

Staying Old

Humbug / Diger

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The first time I listened to Staying Old I didn’t think this review would be in André Borgen’s favour. The album seemed fragmented, confused, directionless and noisy in a slightly annoying way. However, the more attention I gave it and the more I listened, I realised there is some kind of glue binding [...]

Årabrot

I Rove

Fysisk Format

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Årabrot are an Oslo three-piece, originating from the city of Haugesund. They’ve released a fair amount of records on the indie noise label Norway Rat, and with the latest release I Rove, they’re joining the already excellent line-up of bands on the label Fysisk Format. Årabrot is labelled noise rock. I concur. This [...]