That Teloch is a busy man with so many projects on the go. It’s not enough being in Mayhem alone for him but creativity sees him in the excellent Nunfuckritual, The Konsortium, Ov Hell, Umoral as well as helming Nidingr. Sure not all these bands are particularly busy at the moment but they are all still active and you can normally find something happening from at least one of them at any given time. Nidingr are made up of him, fellow Dodheimsgard compadre Blargh, vocalist with strange name Cpt. Estrella Grasa, who holds a rare position this being his only other band past or present, and it would seem no less than two drummers. Last EP ‘Wolf Father’ tickled us as it came by in 2010 on Jester records but did not leave a huge lasting impression but now the band with a second album to prove it all have signed up to Indie Records, so this could really be their testing point. Even if it did go down in flames though, Teloch certainly has no shortage of other things to be getting on with.

You can forget all about unnecessary intros, the title track just batters in with some massively bruising drum blasts. Next we are introduced to the vocals and the rank of Cpt. makes sense as Grasa simply shouts at full force and pretty much does not deviate from this stance throughout the album really sounding like he has troops in front of him and is making sure they are going to go onto the battlefield and kill everything that moves. Add shredding thorny guitars and some well defined bass which has that depressive avant-garde VBE / Virus feel to it and you have the full might here. There are some great guitar parts which really shine through as completely spiky and violent, cold and hateful as we move into ‘All Crowns Fall,’ you can certainly hear the sporadic shard like miasma from recent Mayhem as well as the downbeat hate that sprawled out of that Nunfuckritual album. The band make things sound epic here even though the songs are not overlong and there is a real maturity about the way it is all constructed. Reaching over it all is that all consuming voice which suddenly surprises on ‘O Thou Empty God’ by giving a fast oratory spoken sermon.  Perhaps I should mention that the vocals although undisputedly as loud as they could be are clean and in English so no problem at all hearing the anti-Christian ranting.

It is easy to lose yourself in this unremorseful, misanthropic deluge as songs come at you thick and fast, biting down hard and spitting their fury out. It does not matter how long they are the spite is pretty much unrelenting but the melody behind it all bristles and this is no exercise in simply battering you into submission without any direction. It also makes the sinister parts as found on the likes of ‘Vim Pator’ skillfully uncoil and create a brief moment of sinister dread. The slewed lurch of longest number ‘The Worm Is Crowned’ again reminds of the likes of Virus before it goes from slither to rampage. Looking at some of the song titles here I cannot but wonder if any of the lyrics were written around a ‘Game Of Thrones’ viewing session. A sudden clean harmonic section reminds a bit of Garm, I see no credits to him but he did have some involvement with the band before and whomever it sounds really good. Finishing off and hammering away till the end with ‘Dweller In The Abyss’ it is obvious that this has worked its hate well and truly into me. The vocal yells are now reminding a bit of Cadaver and Aura Noir so we can add them to the list, one thing is obvious this is Norwegian through and through. Solid and skilful Christian butchery of the highest order.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

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