Review: Jernlov – Crucified (Album)
Album: Crucified
Release date: November 24 2020
Album length: 39 Minutes
Genre: Black/Death Metal
Record Label: Independent
Origin: Norway
- God Our Father
- Djevelrep
- Slaves to Righteousness
- Lyft ditt ansikte
- En Frelser på min vei
- Crucified
- In Trials and Temptations
- Døden min siste fiende
- The Crown of Life
- The Evil of Mankind
First I want to thank Trond Edvard Ekroll for letting me know about this project. He is in the band Heidre together with the founder of Jernlov Alf Petter Engeset. I am pretty impressed by this release and feeling honored to write a review about this project.
Jernlov is a new extreme metal band from Norway. It consists of two members, Alf Petter Engeset and drummer Zuriel. They reached out to a list of vocalists to make a guest appearance on Crucified and the result is that the following amazing vocalists contributed on the album:
Ronny Vrede Hanielsen (Antestor, Vaakevandring), Eero Tertsunen (Renascent), Niclas Buss (Parakletos/Hilastherion), Siervo (The Slave Eye), David Sandvik (Roots of Tragedy) and Rita Orheim Engeset (Heidre).
It’s quite funny if you have read the names of the vocalists you can get quite an impression of the sound of the band. Yes, it’s black metal but in a very symphonic/melodic way with some death metal influences.
God Our Father is the first song on the album. This song has such a nice and somewhat calming piano melody throughout the song. The vocals are top-notch as we are used to from Ronny the vocalist of Antestor. Then we have the song God our Father with a majestic piano interlude. Really an amazing song by any means. Again we have the vocals from Ronny. He is able to give the music some extra emotion.
Slaves to Righteousness starts of furious with blast beats and icy riffs. And then we hear the vocals coming in from Eero Tertsunen, amazing! This song contains also a great guitar solo. Something I really like in an extreme metal song.
Lyft ditt ansikte is the next song and this song has a similar approach as Slaves to Righteousness. Fast and furious with Niclas Bus as the vocalist is known for his work in the black metal band Parakletos. I have mentioned earlier that his vocals are getting better and better, and that’s here also the case.
So now we have En Frelser på min vei, a very melodic song with also the addition of some amazing clean vocals from David Sandvik. I don’t know why but this song reminds me of Grave Declaration.
Crucified is the title song of this album this is a black or death and roll song, the variation in the song structures is very well done. This does not weaken the attention at all. And it shows the talent of the musicians. The lyrics of this song get to the heart of Christianity so it’s really a song that touches our hearts.
In Trials and Temptations is a song with a middle tempo with an increase in speed towards the end of the song. We again hear the vocals from Eero. I come to a point where it is unnecessary to highlight each track, yes I know I am a little bit predictable and it’s not because I am lazy. It’s because of the fact the remaining songs continue to please the ears. Just a few more highlights. The Crown of Life has the most Vaakevandring/earlier Antestor sounding intro ever and I love this song so much. Probably my favorite track on the album. Also some special attention to the contribution of Rita in the last track The Evil of Mankind. Alf Petter knows how to experiment. What a catchy but still a brutal track. And let’s not forget the vocal skills from Siervo in this song.
So, in the end, we have here one of the best Christian extreme metal releases in the last year without a doubt. Great melodic extreme metal, amazing song structures, and some of the best Christian extreme metal vocalists out there. A must buy by any means. This is an amazing debut album. Looking forward to the new material.
Rating: 9.5/10
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