Are you sitting near a desk? Grab a pencil, come on humour me – it’s my review after all – and on a piece of paper write the names Darkthrone, Iron Maiden, Therion and slayer at different points around the edge of the paper. Done that? OK, so now, draw lines heading from these points to the centre and, where they bisect, you’ll find Konsortium, a Norwegian technical, blackened thrash band who combine the guitar extremity of Dimmu Borgir with the rather more experimental vocals of very early Therion. If that sounds as if it is mouth-watering (or should that be ear-watering?) to you, then you’d be right. Thanks to a gleaming production job (courtesy of Ashley Stubbert, better known for Pearl jam) and second-to-none musical skills, this is a searing and highly original effort from a band who have spent the last two years honing their skills to a fearsome point.
Opening with the swirling, vast ‘gasmask prince’ which incorporates traditional thrash elements with gargantuan blackened riffs and vocals seemingly torn from the very depths of hell, the band grab you by the balls (proverbially, I assure you) from the off and proceed to take you on an elongated dance around hell’s floor. With the vocals veering between a searing rasp and a more operatic bent and the percussion pushing the BPM through the roof, it is an inspiring start that instantly sees Konsortium justifying the hype generated by their 2008 demo. Having opened with such an impressive catalogue of brutal riffs, ‘Lik Ulven’ is no less impressive. Recalling a mixture of Darkthrone and Dimmu Borgir back when they experimented with all sorts of crazed carnival elements in their music (I’m thinking ‘Puritanical’ here) the result is an album that feels fresh and unforced, drawing its strength from more traditional forms of metal (black Sabbath, early Metallica, Iron maiden) as well as Norway’s exceptionally rich musical backdrop to create a vicious, addictive monster that easily stands its ground against the phenomenally successful acts that appear to have been the band’s inspiration. Vocally impressive thanks to the band’s unconventional approach (a blackened roar one moment, operatic vocals and massed folk harmonies the next) it’s vicious and yet inspiring music and there’s never a dull moment amongst the album’s eight tracks.
‘Under the black flag’ is next and here the thrash element really shines through as the band adopt a fearsome groove that has you picturing the band, feet astride the monitors, head-banging in unison. More straightforward than the first two outings, it’s a track that will undoubtedly please the mosh-pit although it still boasts a chorus that is startlingly unusual. Speaking of unusual, ‘decomposers’ is a mid-tempo Waltz that sees the band trudging against the tide, damaged but defiant with the drums slowly flogging the life out of them. It’s a morbid, blackened, atmospheric track that slowly seeps in to the pores like carcinogenic smoke leaving corroded cells and decay in its wake. At the other end of the dark spectrum one finds the blackened crunch of the frankly unpronounceable ‘Knokkelklang’ which recalls the majestic might of Celtic Frost and the symphonic blast of early Dimmu to spectacularly brutal effect. This tide of brutality spills over onto the stop-start riff fest of ‘Slangenes burn’, a short but exceptionally potent track.
That only leaves the final two tracks of this distressingly short album to round things out. Of these, ‘Onwards! Onwards!’ is a martial battle cry that would be equally at home on the battle fields of Middle Earth or in the mosh pit. A slithery guitar riff highlights the band’s stunning technical proficiency even in the midst of a skirmish and there’s something irresistible about the band’s full-blooded approach to the faster songs that will keep you coming back for more. Final track ‘tesla’ is more epic in scale, broaching five minutes of run time and opening with an almighty riff backed up by some skull-crushing percussion. It soon breaks out of its shell however, and as an astonishing assault of frenzied kick-drums and berserker guitars break upon your head you can only remain astonished at the calm vocals at the heart of the storm which entice rather than threaten, dragging you into the silken web of despair that sits at the heart of this whirlwind of sound.
Although The Konsortium sit at the blackened end of the spectrum they draw from such a wide range of influences from across the metal world that they have created a unique and endlessly broad sound that is entirely their own. Progressive in the truest sense of the word and technically gifted, the band have the skills to match their beautifully ambitious songs and the net result is an album that is impressive, overwhelming, awesome and stunning in equal measure. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better blackened metal album all year – this is simply an astounding effort that deserves to be heard.
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