The north has brought us another cold breeze, and if there's some genre that metalheads in the north are good at, it's Black Metal. The Norwegian band BLODHEMN, signed to the Norwegian Indie Recording Label, have some promising and interesting info on their Facebook page and their website.

BLODHEMN have 3 more releases, not including the "H7" album that is released by Norwegian Indie Recording Label. Their first EP, "Brenn Alle Bruer", and debut album, "Holmengraa", was a huge success, and the expectations for the new album, "H7" are very high too; it's expected to have another turn in Black Metal area. I have to point out the general sound of the "H7" album, which is good and the guitar sound is pretty much warmer than the typical Black Metal tunes, that will effect my opinion of furthermore about the songs in this album. The vocal performance by Invisus are very impressive; he stands behind not only the vocal performance, but the for the whole album.

The first track, "Flammenes Virke", opens with a classic Black Metal song; it is a good start, a good classical, typical opening for the album wins the heart of those who seek some dark and cold spirit of Black Metal genre. The solo at the 03:07 could be more pleasant if it was not off key, for my opinion, off key compositions are not bad if they serve their purpose, but I cannot seem to find a purpose here for the solo as it been composed.

The second track, "Slettet Av Tid", starts with rusty noises and blasts to a pure Black Metal tune from the beginning to the end of this song, is dark and freezing. But here and there you have some weird elements, which I relay as Punk/ Rock & Roll rhythm; as I said before, the general sound affects the genre you play and I can only assume that those parts, which I claim to be weird, could be more legitimate with sharper sound.

The third track, "Evig Heder", is weird in many areas of this genre, in fact, it's not Black Metal at all. The opening reminds me more of an "Ace Of Spades" by MOTORHEAD. It is not bad at all as an individual music track, but I think it might be a little disappointing for a consumer that bought a CD labeled as Black Metal.

The fourth track, "Veiten", starts slowly and melancholy, doom like intro and at 01:03 suddenly the track gets it's aggressive and dark energy as it supposed to be, here you can enjoy a speedy blasting riffs still with a melancholy melody. 01:40 take an unexpected turn, the song turns to a Melodic Death riffs, a bit slower and jolly, and surprisingly melodic. This song has many surprises, and I will leave that to a listeners to find out, because of the middle part in "Veiten", that takes place between 04:33 and ends in 06:08 is amazingly made my day. I have to say that I didn't have a chance to get surprised so many times by one single song. And it is not a positive criticism, music as all arts has to be consistent to some kind of motive, either it's a genre or something else as lyrics, but the biggest element within your series of songs that makes it an album, is the genre. And from my artistic point of view, you should stick to that genre at least for a whole song.
And the reason for that is not to confuse the person who consumes the art you make. I am not here to guide and preach on how you should make your music, but there are few rules in art you should respect because they exist for a reason. Art is all about breaking those laws and make something different, but there's a limit that affects the listener. And "Veiten" has just crossed the limit. For that, I'm sure there would be people who will describe it as a masterpiece, because it is unique, well made, well composed and well produced, for me, "Veiten" is just wrong.

"Åndenes Ansikt" is slow, freezing cold atmospheric Black Metal, and is suited so well the first time I heard it, cold winter, rainy morning on the way to work. A perfect song for perfect weather. Despite the collision of genres "Åndenes Ansikt" has, it's in a light portion and well combined.

In the 6^th track, "Fandesvenn", the confusion continues as BLODHEMN mixed a whole bunch of genres in one big bowl of mush, Punk, Heavy Metal, Rock & Roll riffs with Black Metal. As I already said about the 4th track, here is the same story, it is insane to combine some things together, just like making a tuna ice cream sandwich, individually as ingredients delicious, unbearable as combined.

The last track "Holmengraa" is one of my favorites, fast, dark and melancholy Black Metal by the book! It has its slow parts, but they are still as they should be, Black.

In general, the confusion is not surprising at all, although I still got surprised, the bio itself stands up for the mixture of tunes and genres in "H7" and as a band concept. For those who like to vary their play list, and also a Black Metal fans, I would highly recommend "H7" by BLODHEMN. To Ignore the differences and disagreements I have about "H7", it is still a hard work product, well composed and produced professionally, very contrast on its content that may confuse or amaze you, depends on how you like your music, controversial or conservative, and just for the curiosity, you should give it a try.<