The two worlds of death metal and Norse mythology tend to overlap one another quite often, and if you’re not ready for it you’re more than likely to be surprised by another out of nowhere. It’s been a while since I’ve come across some viking-themed death metal so fumbling into the demo that is the first piece of material from Poland’s Pandrador was a breath of fresh northern air that I haven’t had in way too long.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve done a little bit of dabbling in some classic lore to try and figure out what all these bands are making their music about whenever it concerns Norse myth just so that you can relate to what they were fucking talking about. Thus, if you do even a little bit of homework on Norse lore, you’ll know of the devious scheme that Loki employed to kill sweet and sexy Baldur. That’s the tale that Pandrador tackles with their very first piece of material, “Śmierci Baldura”, and while it’s far from the most original topic in all of the richness that is the Norse mythos, it’s as good as any to start off with. And Pandrador does a solid job to top it all off. Obviously, this is still a demo so the audio quality isn’t the best that it could be, but all-in-all “Śmierci Baldura” still sounds pretty great for a demo where we can clearly hear the predominant death metal with black metal influences in juicy detail where we can feel the effect in full force. While Pandrador doesn’t bring anything new to the table at all with these four tracks, everything still comes together quite nicely so that the overall experience that is “Śmierci Baldura” a solid listen that plenty of people will be able to get a kick out of with the intensity and the topic melding together terrifically.

It’s always hard to judge how good a band is going to be just for a demo alone, so sometimes you’ve got to rely on a gut feeling more than anything else. Right now, my gut is telling me that Pandrador is going to be a band to keep an eye on in the coming future. Do I think they’ll blow up? Not exactly, but I’ve confidence that these guys are determined to make some more tasty morsels for us to experience, and I’m more than keen to see how they will interpret other aspects of the Norse pantheon and beyond.

LISTEN to “Śmierci Baldura” on Bandcamp here or via YouTube below.

LIKE Pandrador on Facebook here.