Nerthus (also sometimes Hertha) is a Germanic fertility goddess who was mentioned by Tacitus in his work entitled Germania. He recorded a second-hand account of a sacrifice to this goddess in a lake on what is often interpreted as the island of Fyn, in Denmark -  Wikipedia . Add the occult CD cover artwork and some demonic singing and you have an album destined to be of real interest...if it wasn't for the (partial) funny production.
Austria has limited contribution to the Black Metal archives. SUMMONING, PAZUZU, ABIGOR can I recall right now. NERTHUS hail from the very west of the country and have been around for more than eight years. Prior to the album reviewed here, three releases has the band offered so far, dealing with what they like to call Grim Ancient Metal. Not a bad characterization, I must confess, after listening to The Crowned's Reunion for the fourth time. Middle-aged themes, often exchanged with morbid riffing and blastbeats, do support some interesting singing chopped in half to gloomy narrating and maniac howling.
The guitar leads are sounding really 'pale' whereas some nice keys provide the ideal atmosphere and the drums (or the drum machine?) deal with lots of tempos, mainly focusing on double basses. Yeah, some early SUMMONING can relate to this one, specifically in the form of songwriting and parts' sequence. There's not that much of the relation to any Scandinavian warriors, mainly due to the band's intention of altering renaissance themes with pure speed holocaust.
The production is omitting points from the album, though. Apart from the irritating drums sound, it is obvious that NERTHUS have not given much of attention in how to 'transform' their medieval will to something suitable. Yeap, flutes do a great job depicting the medieval era, but the production could be of more grimness, as the band likes to express. Have not heard any of the band's previous creations but, bearing in mind the (trully) 'personal' sound NERTHUS have, it would be a pitty to lose ground due to any factor apart from their own will.