When Norwegian Black Metal became the matter of a discussion, it's clear that the scene of the country was extremely important to the rebirth of the genre in the 90's. Obviously, the polemics that happened between 1991 and 1993 called a lot of attention, but the reason that made things great is that the musical works of DARKTHRONE, BURZUM, EMPEROR and MAYHEM formed the foundations of what the genre came to be from those days on. And another veteran of those days is still alive: ENDEZZMA (that was founded on 1993 under the name of DIM NAGEL, entered on hiatus, but that is back since 2005). And they're back for another massive strike with "The Archer, Fjord and the Thunder".

On this album (their third one), if it is compared with 2017's "The Arcane Abyss", the band gave a step ahead in many aspects: even keeping their musical identity, their massive form of playing a pure form of Black Metal became solid and shows many points sharpened by evolution, as the adornments heard on the musical arrangements. This is what means to be a Norwegian Black Metal band: to explore possibilities into the genre, but keeping their core the same. And the songs are really lovely, furious and aggressive in some moments, intense and melancholically darkened on others, and using a very good technical insight. And the energy of the album is amazing, something hard to be heard today. Tore Stjerna again did the mastering (as he did on their past album), but now he is behind the mixing as well. And their music has that crude and morbid approach of the past, but with defined and powerful instrumental tunes. It's extremely good, and fits on what the quintet has to show.

Their music evolved in a spontaneous and organic form, creating songs that are really hard to resist. But for a first time on their work, "The Name of the Night is a Strong Tower" (a morbid and aggressive songs with many contrasts between fast and slow parts, a fine feature from Norwegian Black Metal, and based on very personal tunes on vocals), "Anomalious Abomination" (another song with a brutal and catching appeal, showing excellent guitar parts), "The Archer, Fjord and the Thunder" (this one shows a more traditional approach, but adorned with many great arrangements, especially on bass guitar and drums that creates sinuous rhythmic parts), "Formless and Void" (the use of agonizing Gregorian chants in many parts is always a great feature, and used under the very good technical insight improves things), "Garden ov Heathen" (even when the band uses a brutal and oppressive form, their musical arrangements creates excellent elegant parts, including the wise use of some guitar solos), and "Arrows of Equilibrium" (a fine song with a melancholic and crude approach with slow tempos, what improves the interpretation of the vocals, and shows the good technique used by bass guitar and drums as well) are the indicated. But the entire album is excellent and easy to be understood, so allow you to have such the pleasure.

ENDEZZMA is really a band that fits on the set of those that you create a strong synergy with, and "The Archer, Fjord and the Thunder" shows that they have potential to conquer the hearts of all Black Metal fans. Try it, and you won't regret the experience.