The early 90s of Black Metal is coming back to haunt the realms of the cold blooded. Maybe not everyone is cold blooded but surely every fan of this Metal subgenre has something boiling for that adrenaline rush that has been festering and molesting the fast paced aggression from the underworld. Nonetheless, as a fan of the older groups of the second wave of Black Metal, meaning the Norwegian scene, it was hard for me to actually find a band that would standout just as earlier gods like EMPEROR, DARKTHRONE and IMMORTAL among others once stood proudly. Recently Trollzorn Records pioneered me to the Danish old school Black Metal band of VARDLOKKUR and their sophomore album of "Articulo Mortis", a little above of half an hour of pure and raw Nordic style harsh attitude that nearly had nothing gifted to put out aside from reminding the old days.

From the snarling anguish like cry of "Abyss Incantation" I was hit by a thunderous storm of rage of the screaming agony of vocalist / guitarist, Vrede. Also I was thumped by that same shadow created by the rhythms that only Black Metal bands could congregate. As the tracks flew by me I tried to find elements in the music that would lead me to an extraordinary kind of safe haven, meaning points of interest. As always in the Black Metal music, I am addicted to those magical, yet sometimes overly predictable due to over usage throughout the years, octave riffing bearing melodic nature.

VARDLOKKUR, like any other, didn't pass out the chance to use these great melodic features on their own songs. However, on songs like "Den Indre Deamon" and "Temple Af Knogler", there were rather infrequent moments were VARDLOKKUR weren't just storming forward with intense fast paced riffing but actually seemed to have built something intelligent and different. Following an old school type of production pattern, the guitars were immensely apparent, though sadly that the rhythm section, more like the drums, sounded a bit crappy yet I would expect less from a Black Metal band that wants to sound a little bit vintage.

"Articulo Mortis" is a solid piece of Black Metal and no more. Sometimes I even got tired of Vrede's vocals as those sounded more like snarls than actual Black Metal growls. The music as I foretold wasn't close to be ground breaking as it set out to be a aide memoire of times gone. VARDLOKKUR are certainly not first band to repeat older steps, but who knows how their third album will sound like.