Kampfar: Ofidians Manifest (2019)

Kampfar is yet another one of those black metal bands that I have heard good things about for a very long time, yet never got around to checking them out (like Shining and Drudkh).  They have been around since the mid 1990's and have released eight full-length albums, yet this is the first album I have heard.  Part of that may have been due to the language barrier.  Otherwise, it is likely they just were not completely on my radar.  As a result of this discovery of the band, I am hearing them fresh and do not have the reference points in the band's career to compare this.

In a couple of ways, this release reminds me of Theogonia by Rotting Christ.  First of all, musically.  Kampfar combines traditional Norwegian black metal with pagan and folk influences, including chanted vocals.  Now obviously the pagan and folk influences on this Kampfar release differ in origin to the Rotting Christ album.  Kampfar, being Norwegian, would obviously have different folk music to pull influence from than the Greek band Rotting Christ.  The folk elements complement the otherwise dark and grim black metal riffing quite well, making this a very intriguing listen.

The second way in which this album reminds me of Theogonia is due to my own personal experience with it.  Like Theogonia for Rotting Christ, this is my first experience with Kampfar and is their newest release.  I had the same response to this album, being one of awe and amazement, for the most part.  The album does tend to drag a little bit toward the end.  And so time will tell if I get into Kampfar as much as I did Rotting Christ.

I found myself extremely impressed by this release by Kampfar.  It is a terrific example of taking disparate influences like black metal and traditional folk music and combining them into something beautiful and powerful.  Obviously many bands have been doing this for quite some time, and of course Kampfar is one of them, but they still make it sound new and fresh.