Review by Felix on June 18, 2023.

Let me tell you something that should be common understanding. These song-interlude-song-interlude-song albums do not work. Their configuration hurts their flow and their density massively. Pestilence’s “Testimony of the Ancient” is a good output, but it would be a great one without the big number of mostly senseless intermezzos, to give but one example.

And let me tell you another thing that should be common understanding as well. The guy with the pseudonym Shamatee was able to create very intensive, pitch black, occasionally almost magical music, at least on his first albums. “Kostogher”, for example, does not lack power or spirituality and it is one of the albums which confirm my statement.

“Fenris kindir” offers both senseless sequences where nothing happens (without having the strict configuration I mentioned above) and partly very good, fascinating and powerful music whenever the compositions gather momentum. “Hatarnir” with its rasping riffing, the nearly devastating bass drum and the hateful troll-vocals starts in a wonderful manner, but a needless break (shamanic whispering is on the agenda) leaves me perplexed. Again and again it happens that the actually vigorous material vanishes into thin air and I am just listening to the sound of wind, asthmatic trumpets which know only one tone or gypsy-like fiddling nobody ever asked for. Maybe this is a kind of soundtrack for a shamanic ritual (I am almost sure), but honestly speaking, I would have preferred a higher portion of metal instead. Aggravating the situation, even the metallic parts of “Fenris kindir” are not immune against weak moments. Some sections suffer from repetition, the songs are pretty similar to each other and the guitar tone transports a somewhat monotonous vibration the longer the full-length lasts. Nevertheless, this is the lesser evil compared with the overlong, boring intermezzos. The furious beginning of “Angrbođa” alone has more fire than all the interludes put together – not to mention the pleasantly sick screams in the background that appear as the song progresses.

The production is typical for Arckanum. Neither polished nor blurred, it creates this misty and opaque atmosphere the project has been well known for. Maybe it is true that the guitars are too loud in relation to the drums, but the voice has enough space. Anyway, I can recommend this output only to convinced weekend-shamans, because solid-to-good songs and an overdose of non-musical sections lead to a result that cannot compete with the real highlights of an overflowed market. I admit that there is still a form of primordial mysticism in the material. Unfortunately, sometimes too many conceptual thoughts are rather part of the problem than of the solution.

Rating: 5.6 out of 10