Back To The Shores Of Grey is an 'old-school' album by these German blacksters, but it is not as 'black' as its artwork may declare. NORDAFROST mix Scandinavian early 90s Black Metal with some Death Metal riffing, providing an album that many may find interesting, while I was not overall that impressed; not that this is a mediocre CD, anyway.
NORDAFROST's first full-length, North Arise,  saw the light of day, or - better - the gloom of night, in 2004. The blend of ENSLAVED, (epic) IMMORTAL and DISSECTION may be a good description of what NORDAFROST offered back then, but with a rather 'cold' sound. This year's sophomore release (again via Heavy Horses Records) does not 'distance' the band's sound that much. Svartis' vocals is again an 'ace' for the band; he sings misanthropic, without any caress, and spits out frozen fire rapidly. His vocals in mid-tempo or up-tempo parts is adequate, too, unveiling some 'lurking' classic Metal patterns. The guitars, on the other hand, are accurate and distorting, with a tendency in fast 'lightning' playing, but did not electrify me; rather average riffing formulas...
The rhythm section could be even better, since the bass/drums parts do sound a little 'behind' in the mix. Still, even from the background, the blastbeats are sharp enough while the bass fills in up-tempo parts are rather inspiring. As for the songwriting, a couple of info has already been given. Especially the Black-with-some-Death DISSECTION paths are quite visible, not only it the songs stractures but also in the tempos' coherence. Still, I would not refer to NORDAFROST being a 'clone', since they've efficiently adopted a more northern sound with enough references to the early 90s Black Metal base (while Aversion even crosses the 'evil' Thrash borders).
Dunno how many good releases can an average semi-'retro' Scandinavian Black/Death fan expect in year 2008. If not many, then Back To The Shores Of Grey is an album he/she can trust, possibly. Checking the quartet's official website and MySpace page, so as to take a glimpse of a couple of tracks off this new album, will surely help. I kinda liked the album; nothing thrilling, but I liked it.