Vintersorg are a band from Sweden that sing in Swedish. Their press kit proclaims that they were brought together "with the idea to bring clean vocals back to the heavy metal genre." What an admirable goal and one that critics of the death metal genre have been awaiting for many years! Thankfully, then, Vintersorg carries out their promise to sing in clean vocals, but since I don't speak/understand their language, I'm at a severe disadvantage.

This is mainly because the musicianship in this band is superb. Opening track "Nar Alver Sina Runor Sjuntil" starts out as an electric rocker before collapsing into a soft acoustic section punctured by electric guitar and drum hits. Then the electric guitar takes over until the solo, when the acoustic guitar returns and an electric guitar solo melodically expands the musical theme of the track. The changes are executed cleanly and sets the bar high for the band.

And luckily again, they surpass it with each track. Track two "Svaltvinter" starts with a "Unforgiven" style riff before the rest of the band enters and shatters the mellow opening with sonic intensity. The acoustic guitar lead is executed very cleanly.

In general, Vintersorg is a welcome surprise. There are more positives than negatives. The drumming is sharp and aggressive with excellent drum tone; the bass provides an underbelly of precision; the guitars cut and mend their riffs eloquently.

The only problem I have with this CD is that if you are going to try and get worldwide exposure, you should have English lyrics. I have no idea what they're singing about: could be slitting the the throats of a million goats while the blood spills upon the sacrifice of a virgin dressed in white for all I know. And if including lyrics in English is not possible in the CD booklet, they should be available at a website. To the band's credit, they have a link to lyrics for their releases, but I could not read them while researching this review. I think it's safe to say they will have the lyrics up in the near future.

That's just a suggestion for future Vintersorg releases. I think this band has a long future ahead of it and I'm anxious to hear their next effort.

Rating: A-

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