I had been looking forward to listening to this properly as I had managed to turn up at a listening session for the album a couple of months ago just in time to hear the last song, doh! The 3rd Attempt is a new band but one with pedigree about it having been formed by Tchort and Blood Pervertor following departure from a seriously inactive Carpathian Forest. Joined by drummer Tybalt from the also excellent Fortid and vocalist Odemark ex of Midnattsverde on giving this a first spin I thought it was going to be standard Norse thrashing blackness but on further listens it unveiled quite a bit more to me. I have to admit it did take its time to do so, far more than gelling on the 3rd Attempt (sorry) but now it’s got its hooks in fully I am not only enjoying it a lot more but also very much looking forward to seeing the band on tour with Taake in a few weeks.
Bombing into ‘Torment Nation’ there’s some great thorny hooks from the guitar department and some evil sounding vocal rasps amidst a real rotten rolling groove. Vocals quickly show themselves as versatile with loud clean shouts going over the top reminding a bit of more recent Darkthrone and with the thrashing blackness a fair bit of Nifelheim to boot. There’s plenty else going on too, an atmospheric down tools moment before it heads into a final drive with a melody that should by now having you slamming fists away to it. ‘Black Wisdom’ goes like the clappers and is even faster than the opener meaning that you are gonna be in danger of your head falling off banging along to this one. The punk laden vibe of Carpathian Forest bounces all over ‘Art Of Domination’ along with some mid era Satyricon rolling grooves and this one should certainly cause a pit full of ugly when unveiled live. Things slow down a bit on ‘We Defy’ and we go into a groove that is quite reminiscent of Immortal or should that be Abbath, it’s a solid slice of Norse to the hilt svart metal.
By now you are probably expecting to thrash like a beast over the entire ten tracks but that’s not quite the case. The title track broods in with some distinctly death metal growls and beats before lightening with some distinct Bathory sounding choral parts and some unexpected but really good clean vocal sweeps over a compulsive melody. Wasn’t really expecting that but the track works brilliantly at the midway point adding a lot of different dimensions to the band’s overall sound. There’s plenty more neck cracking and fast and furious action on the second half of the album so those wanting to wreck will have no problem but again the band throw the odd curveball into things. ‘Sons Of The Winter’ proves as cold as anticipated even with a full blooded rasp of “fire” scalding the listener before it speeds up and blazes away but then it unveils plenty of majesty as it evolves, far from one dimensional again. ‘Nekrogrammation’ is a track that just allows you to get completely savage and then ‘Fire Storm’ changes tract and adds some slow filmic symphonic parts into cauldron and brews up with jagged, spiteful and thorny riffs over a mid-paced groove before going completely venomous and ripping away. The shifts of pace here are really keeping the listener on their toes. Anti-Self is a case of pure negativity as far as closing things is concerned and a soundscape of eerie sounds and sudden blackened surges reminding a bit of when 1349 went all strange.
Hopefully The 3rd Attempt won’t prove to be a complete replacement for Carpathian Forest and their darkness and grime will taint us once more but in the meantime ‘Born In Thorns’ is an exciting new outfit that lovers of Norwegian black metal should grab at the first opportunity.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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