Jordablod: Jordablod (2015)

I was blown away by Jordablod's debut album Upon My Cremation Pyre immediately upon hearing it back in 2017.  It did not make my Top Albums list only because it was so late in the year that I heard it, but subsequent listens have led to it being one of my favorite black metal releases, much less debuts, in the last ten years or so.  It is remarkably creepy and atmospheric and it really does not sound like anything else.  They have yet to release a follow-up, but they did previously release an EP and a demo.  I picked up the demo last year, and this is the EP.

This is the first recording by Jordablod and it is definitely rough around the edges, both in songwriting and in the production values.  None of these three songs appear on the band's debut album or the demo, so it is likely that these songs were written well before anything from the album released a couple years later.  That being said, these three songs are a very good introduction to the band and definitely show what the band was aiming to do later on.  The elements of what made their debut album so intriguing are present from the very beginning.  The band's ability to create a dark and hostile atmosphere through riffs that call to mind the first wave of black metal (Bathory, Master's Hammer, Root for reference points) sounds completely fresh and alien and unique all at once.

I am absolutely looking forward to hearing more from Jordablod.  I now have all of their releases and I enjoy the band more and more every time I hear them.  This is a truly unique black metal band.  More people should be aware of them.