Doedsvangr – Serpents ov Old

Band: Doedsvangr
Title: Serpents ov Old
Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Release date: 29 October 2021
Country: Norway / Finland
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording

To start what you think you will listen to featuring members of Horde of Hel, Nordjevel, Gandr, Svartelder, Horna, Mortualia, etc and ex-Nattverd, ex-Sturmgeist, ex-Tsjuder, ex-Eternum, ex-Asosoth etc… Tell me? Well… I think you know.

A Black Metal band. Yep. And an amazing album to be honest.

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of well-known persons/bands doing another band or side projects, cause the majority of the time they just do almost the same but with another name.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. That is the truth but in this case… Well, it did. A lot.

“Serpents ov Old” is the second album from this band and you must listen to this.

I can’t deny that the bands mentioned above are here and there during the album, but at the same time, they are not.

So… I stopped to think about those bands and started to listen to carefully the album and it is a Black Metal album that everyone should listen to. It is fast, it is melodic, it is mid-tempo, it is aggressive, it is brutal, it is balanced and very good.

The album is divided into 9 songs or should I say 9 hymns to Black Metal? Hmm… Anyway…

The songs are very good, sometimes a bit catchy. The changes of tempo during the songs is very well achieved the production it’s “clean” and it’s possible to listen to everything very well and balanced. A positive point for this kind of Black Metal.

When the fashion is playing raw Black Metal, lofi Black Metal, or Atmospheric Black Metal, Doedsvangr showed to everyone that the Scandinavian Black Metal is not dead.

The album played several times (just not to say, a lot) and every time I heard it, bands like Marduk, Dark Funeral, Immortal, 1349, Lord Belial, sometimes Naglfar, The Abyss, etc came to my head. Yes, not saying they are a copy + paste band, no, that is not the case, but the old Scandinavian Black Metal style is there. That is my point.

Even if I heard the album many many times, I still can’t find a “weak” song. there are better songs in the whole album, but none is the song that people say “I don’t like that song” or “it’s a weak song” or “the album would be perfect without that song”, etc etc etc…

My purpose was not that, to be honest. My real purpose when I pick this album to listen to and now review it was just to enjoy music. I had very lucky. I picked one very well.

Check this band, forget the member’s past, or try and enjoy it. Is a very damn good album. For me and with no doubts… 9/10 The Key Keeper 666