I always loved Stoner Metal music! This Metal genre was influenced mainly by BLACK SABBATH and their masterpiece (no doubt) "Master Of Reality" an album which is considered to be the first Stoner Rock / Metal release. Furthermore bands like SIR LORD BALTIMORE have been called "The Godfathers Of Stoner Rock" (if you didn't listen to their albums, now is a good time to start! old but good). Most of the early Stoner Metal hailed from Californian bands like KYUSS, FU MANCHU, CELESTIAL SEASON, THE HEADS and others. SVOLK is from Norway which became the leader in Stoner Metal at the start of the millennia. Bear Metal it is how SVOLK describes the music they play. I don't really understand what it means, they used this term to describe their musical sound of Stoner Rock mixed with classic Metal with just a splash of 70s Doom, maybe the term Bear Metal refers to the animal, which is strong, cruel and very smart to describe their music: strong, cruel and smart, that is yet to be seen.

Hailing from Oslo, Norway SVOLK has been around since 2005 it seems that they have been trying very hard for the past few years to make a mark on the Norwegian Metal scene. Releasing their first album "Svölk 'Em All" in 2011, SVOLK is now releasing their follow up album "Nights Under The Round Table" onto the world. The album consist of eight tracks when amazingly, each track stands out on its own, consisting of a mix of fusing sludgy, Stoner Metal with crunchy classic Rock tempos and throaty, melodic vocals.

The first song of the eight tracks juggernaut "Living By The Sword" starts with an atmospheric wind and acoustic guitar sounds, very similar to GRAND MAGUS's "Like The Oar Strikes The Water", which is very surprising after all GRAND MAGUS are Swedish. After an atmospheric flinch the song comes to life with a classic Stoner riff and tempo, the song incorporates retro vocals that are very similar to many Stoner Metal bands. "Painbringer", "Feed Your Soul", "Fallen" and "Twenty Four Seven" round up the first section of the album this section has a very clear influence from BLACK SABBATHand other known Stoner Metalbands, although there is nothing special in the first section of the album they are still solid Stoner Metal songs with nice Riffs and in my opinion very nice retro vocals. Furthermore the first section, amazingly, shows SVOLK sounds to be very American Stoner Metal sounds although they are from Norway

"Bearserk" doesn't have the Stoner Metal sound at all on the contrary it sounds like a straight up Heavy Metal song from the early 80s. My favorite song is "To Conquer Death You Only Have To Die". This song has great riffs and drum work with a sludgy sound of the guitars and vocals give this song a dark sound. The last song "This Is Where It Ends" is a strait up Groovy Metal songs. It's faster than other songs in the album and has some distance from the Stoner Metal sound that the album tries to deliver- apart from a minute and a half of the song that goes Doom. Overall it is a nice combination, a solid song. In the second part of the album tracks as "Bearserk", "Break My Bones", "To Conquer Death You Only Have To Die" and "This Is Where It Ends " made me think that SVOLK started to experiment with fusion of Stoner and Heavy Metal (with a pinch of Alternative Rock) in order to create a unique sound of their own and even create a sub-genre in the Stoner genre .

Overall a nice album with lots of growth potential for the band, just didn't understand where the bear was?

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