Album Review: Bekmork – Incantations of the Frigid North (Horns High Records)

In the spirit of Norwegian black metal rises a mysterious new band, delivering odes to the darkness and cold of the frozen north. Emerging from obscurity to produce a 5 track debut album is Bekmork (Norwegian for pitch black). Their lyrical influence is often strongly rooted in Scandanavian lore, with references to Viking legends and pagan gods, but can more broadly be interpreted as a nihilistic celebration of all which is darkness.

Bekmork is a two man band featuring Dread Count Naberius on vocals and guitars and Malevolent Berserker on drums and guitars. Incantations of the Frigid North will be released on January 25th 2019 via Horns High Records.

It’s hard to not have a little chuckle when Incantations of the Frigid North begins. The mess that comes at you on Six Daggers, One Axe is poor. Almost unlistenable at first, the silliness of it all is further heightened by the spoken word vocals that sound like someone is choking on food.

After such a horrendous start, things do improve on The Bells of Klippe Hule (Summon Forth the Mighty Wakon). A track that has some intriguing elements that really give it an evil style. The toiling of bells, clean chanting vocals and some old-school doomy guitar playing. A much improved direction for the black metallers.

It would be great to say that we just get banger after banger following this but we don’t as Creed of the Nihilist (Alt Er Ingenting) is a little bit rubbish too. The guitar rhythm, boring and the vocals sounding at odds with it. A very confusing listen.

Even more so when you get genuinely solid tracks like When Loki Calls.

Don’t get me wrong, none of these tracks are going to appearing on any best of lists come the end of 2019 but the good ones massively overshadow the bad.

Bekmork – Incantations of the Frigid North Full Track Listing:

1. Six Daggers, One Axe
2. The Bells of Klippe Hule (Summon Forth the Mighty Wakon)
3. Of Hoof, And Horn, And Blood
4. Creed of the Nihilist (Alt Er Ingenting)
5. When Loki Calls

The album can be ordered over on Bandcamp and more information can be found via their Facebook Page.