Tristania – “Darkest White” (2013)

Label : Napalm Records

Review by Tony Cannella

The Norwegian Gothic metal veterans Tristania returns with “Darkest White”, their seventh album and first since 2010’s “Rubicon”. “Darkest White” is also the second album to feature vocalist Mariangela Demurtas as she continues to fit in quite nicely and her further comfortability shows quite well throughout the 10-song, 48-minute playing time provided here.

The bombastic riffing leads us into the frenzied pacing of the opening track, “Number”. The main vocals on this track are from Anders Hoyvik Hidle who provides the brutal vocals as Mariangela joins in with her excellent vocals. Continue reading »

Kvitrafn (Einar Selvik) – Wardruna

Interview by Alessandra Cognetta

When I was asked if I wanted to interview Einar “Kvitrafn” Selvik from Wardruna I had to stop for a good five minutes to register the news. If you don’t know about Wardruna, you should immediately make up for that, for your own good. Wardruna is an ensemble of Norwegian musicians that combines runes, old and historical instruments, sounds produced by nature and a significant amount of talent to produce some of the most intense, primitive, magical (I could go on forever and I still wouldn’t be able to describe it accurately) pieces of music you will ever hear. Kvitrafn is one of the main pillars of this extraordinary gathering of artists, delivering lyrics, vocals and instrumental performances since the first album of the “Runaljod” trilogy of albums, which is still in progress. Their second work, “Yggdrasil”, has been released at the end of March and we took the chance to uncover some of the mysteries of their music. Read below for a nice conversation about music, shamanism, vikings, stereotypes and… well, just scroll down and see for yourself!

KARMIC LINK announces new line up addition and album updates

Year 2013…

After 2 years of creative silence, we are back in the studio recording our 3rd – yet untitled – official surrealistic album. The recordings are currently taking place in Athens (Greece) & Oslo (Norway). We have parted ways with the French company Pervade Productions/Manitou Music/Thundering Records, which released our albums ‘’No Light but Rather Darkness Visible’’ (2008) & ‘’Esoterica’’ (2010).

Karmic Link are also happy to announce & welcome Kim ‘’Kimbo’’ Gustavsson (ex-System Shock, ex-Taketh, ex-Deviant Breed), a multi-instrumentalist musician, to their ranks. Kim, who hails from Sweden, performed with Karmic Link as a live session drummer in Scandinavia, back in 2010. He will record all guitars/drums/bass for the new Karmic Link album. Continue reading »

Silje Leirvik – “With the Lights Turned Out So Beautiful” (2012)

Label : Autumnsongs Records/Burning Shed

Review by Davide Torresan

Silje Leirvik is a Norwegian singer-songwriter and this “With yhe Lights Turned Out So Beautiful” is her debut album. You know so little about her since she’s still a rather unknown artist, especially outside her native country. The songs she has composed in the demos of 2006 and 2007 are really a rare beauty. Her sweet and gentle voice but at times a bit dark matches perfectly with the sound of the piano or the cello. Her skills as a singer allowed her to win several music awards and in 2006 she joined the Norwegian rock band Madrugada on tour. 2012 was the right year and she focused on her ideas, gathered over the years in her first album. It became really important the collaboration with the producer and composer Rhys Marsh who played most of the instruments in this record. Continue reading »

Silje Leirvik

Interview by Robert Brady

In a country that is notorious for its biggest musical export being Black Metal, Norway has also been building a great legacy of producing some of the top female vocalists, artists and musicians in the world. In modern time in the heavy metal and hard rock community, Norway has produced Liv Kristine ex-Theatre of Tragedy and current frontwoman of her own band Leaves Eyes, probably one of the most beautiful and undisputed powerful operatic vocalist in ex- Tristania soprano Vibeke Stene, Carmen Elise Espenæs of Midnattsol and on the pop side Marion Raven.