Stagnation is a threat to many of the old bastions of metal music with only the finest names able to show us what can really still be done in styles that can be considered long-dead. Repetition in the wrong capacity can truly make or break a creation to the highest degree with reverence, respect, and talent able to make up for such downfalls so long as the approach is put together just right. That’s one of the things that has enabled old school black metal to keep going strong well into today with plenty of bands still able to deliver that dark majesty in such magnificent capacity that one cannot help but revel before such might. Having been on the rise for some time now, it’s with their newest work that Hāg certifies itself as just such a band.

There are always situations that arise in genres like this where people, myself included, will throw around terms like “you don’t need to reinvent the wheel” when crafting an album, but it always helps if one understands how the metaphorical wheel worked in the first place and what made it such a wild thing to behold. As such, it’s always wondrous to witness a band like Hāg weaves its dark craft together in spectacular form. An imposing force that has a clear and intimate understanding of what always made those seminal works of black metal such beacons for greatness in the first place, it’s all throughout “Over Stormskapte Fjell” that we can see that knowledge put to tremendous use for five cold and scathing tracks that do naught but extreme justice for the genre as a whole. Deeply immersed in riffs while constantly being at one with the frozen woodlands on the mountaintops where your foggy breath is your only corporeal companion, “Over Stormskapte Fjell” is unashamed in what it tries to be and manages to deliver a performance that can be considered amongst the more splendid and well-defined creations of black metal that we’ve gotten in recent months. Eclectic despite its apparent simplicity, Hāg accomplishes much within these five tracks that do much to not just honor the memory of black metal legends passed, but further the glory that Hāg has been building up to for some time now.

The sort of creation that would be carved out as a band’s standout creation no matter how long their run goes on for, Hāg does nothing but succeed with this somewhat unassuming album. “Over Stormskapte Fjell” has all the hallmarks and notions of excellence the likes of which the underground is constantly clamoring for

LISTEN to “Over Stormskapte Fjell” on Bandcamp here.

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