FLUKT is a Black Metal band from Vennesla, Norway. They've been around since 2015 and have released two EPs and several singles. In October 2019 they issued their debut, full-length album, "Darkness Devour." For those of us who aren't conversant in Norwegian, "flukt" translates to "escape." And I suppose that's what the band offers - an escape from the mundane and common to the abyssal and rare, from mainstream music to the glorious Black Metal, from the status quo to the raw and visceral. All of these things come across like hot iron on flesh with "Darkness Devour."

The album comprises eight tracks and over 34 minutes of old school Black Metal. While the production is decidedly lo-fi, featuring tremolo riffs, blast beats, and raking vocals, they add a number of elements to the mix which distinguish them from others. The dual guitars of A.Ø and O.K.F, plus guest guitarist Jon Ivar Larsen (DALIT, CLOTH), gives the album depth and heft which are sometimes lacking in Black Metal. The band also coaxes a fair amount of complexity into their songwriting, adding intrigue and allure to the otherwise grey hellscape - another regent often missing in the genre.

The standout tracks are the ones that play out these two aspects. "No Return," which is also supported by a video, first comes at you like a razored banshee. Just when you adjust to the frenzied melody, the bottom drops out and gut ripping riffs storm forward. The onslaught is multi-phased with wave after wave of variant movements until a triumphant lead guitar solo (Jon Ivar Larsen) emerges. When I heard this track I was afraid it might be the single, monolithic track that stands the album up. That fear was dispelled with the next track, "Wounds," and then stomped lifeless with "Eisatz." "Eisatz" seems to be a German word meaning "commitment." Commitment to what? The riff. Commitment to the all mighty riff. This track punches in with Godzilla-sized riffs and a solo as searing as that radioactive flame it spits.

Other massive tracks are "Azrael," an instrumental with fat doom riffs, and "Trolldom i morket," (trans: sorcery in the dark) which just cranks out the mayhem until the last forty seconds when the pace slows from frenetic to thunderous. The final track, "Trespass the Devil's Playground," is also a killer. The longest song on the album (close to eight minutes), the track lives up to its namesake and provides ample space for the band to showcase their songwriting prowess.

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I queued up "Darkness Devour." I certainly heard the old school coming through, but I heard a lot more. FLUKT isn't simply treading down the same old paths forged by others; they are adding something distinct to it and leaving their mark if not on the genre then at least on our psyches.