Evig Hat - Evig Hat

So winter has come a bit early in my part of the world and when winter comes I love me some good old fashioned, icy, dark black metal. So in my quest to acquire some good black metal, I ran across Norway's Evig Hat. Formed in 2011 by Satan ( imagine that, Satan starting his own black metal band) who pretty much did all of it by himself up until recently, I found a band that really did not bring much originality to the table. But they really make up for it in Satan's ability to write catchy songs and having an evil as fuck sound. This is straight up black metal that kicks your ass with it's execution but has just enough melody to make the songs good and believable.

So in 2014, this band has released five full length releases and two EPs. All releases are digital, but man that's an impressive feat for anyone.The self titled full length being reviewed here is his fourth. What we have here is raw and aggressive black metal riffing that is more than just interesting enough to catch your ear. The opener, "Evig Hat" is starts out with some blasting and aggressive riffing that just sets the mood. The vocals are evil sounding and adds to the dark mood even more. The tempo slows a bit with some killer, almost doom sounding riffs leading to a melodic part that adds an epic element to this song. I'm liking this so far. The production is rather raw but I wouldn't say lo-fi. The drums can be over loud in a few spots like on the blasting parts of "Undermennesket." A great song with some really cool things going on but that snare drum. However, this does not take anything away from the song.

"Døde skrik" kinda reminds me of Shadowthrone era Satryricon in the beginning with the riffs and melodies. As I said, the vocals on this album sound really evil and actually are good black metal vocals. This song is just fierce, that's all I can say. The riffs just keep coming and when it does slow down it just flows with melody then it kicks your teeth in again. In contrast, "Ensomhetens Offer" just pummels you from beginning to end with sheer black metal mayhem. It slows a bit halfway through but for the most part this is fast riff laden black metal on this one. The album is closer is a nine and a half minute affair and is much slower with much more atmosphere. That does not take away from the heaviness or the darkness that just oozes from the song. It begins a bit chaotic, almost sounding like Zappa gone black metal, but seems to get that dark atmosphere as the song goes on. Quite different from the other songs on the album, this song still displays a black metal feeling because of the eerie sounds. I think it's a cool way to end the album.

So here we have an album that I ran across by accident but has now become an essential album for me. There is much more than just second wave worship going on here. This is about as real as it gets. I'm interested in hearing the other releases because if they are of this quality then we have something really special here. If you like black metal, this is for you.

8.5/10