KVELERTAK “Kvelertak” (Indie Recordings 2010)

KVELERTAK : it means “chokehold” in Norwegian. Besides you don’t feel like you’re strangled while listening to their album… Actually you feel relieved, like in a total loosening. I won’t make no bones telling you these guys are completely crazy BUT they know exactly where they want to take their music. So they decided to blend all the ingredients they like, with a determined madness, at the risk of getting something ugly… Except that it worked positively well, the result being totally explosive.

Death-punk ? Rock’n’roll ? Heavy metal ? All at the same time, you mean ! “Brutally catchy punkrock/metal with a taste of groovy darkness” : that’s how they define their delightful mishmash. Screaming their lungs out, hammering their instruments to death, playing some cool rock’n’roll solos here and there, doing all this with an infectious enthusiasm : KVELERTAK is synonymous of blending all the bulls’ balls in the world with a freaking dose of endorphin, oh pleasure !!!

You can find the record a bit linear in that it keeps that decadent rhythm from A to Z : it’s the punk side, like it or fuck it. You can find irritating the screamed vocals, but what the hell : Erlend Hjelvik is Norwegian, by Thor ! For stupid ass folk music, please go somewhere else. You can say whatever you want actually, this album is a melting pot of rock’n’roll and metal in all its forms, strong sign that with motivation and a pronounced artistic spirit you can get a hell of a combination. KVELERTAK creates an atypical world into which we wanna plunge immediately, such as in Tolkien’s books. As I said above : love it or hate it.

Last modified: 11 February 2015