Oystem G. Brun - all guitars and lyrics
Grum - drums
Rai R. Lic - bass
Fiery G. Maelstrom - voice
War Bjornsen - synths and organic FX
1. The Ege of Oden
2. The Winterway
3. Om hundredeaareraltmy Glemt
4. A Tale of Pagan Tongue
5. To Mount and Rode
6. Grumland Domain
7. Ascension of Our Fathers
8. The Dawn of the End
The clean guitar is cool but some the distorted riffs are bad because the distortion messes them up. They're lead vocalist has a pretty good black metal singing voice, and his clean vocals are somewhat haunting.
In terms of recording, this album has very clear sounds. You can hear everything unlike other black metal albums (or epic metal as Borknagar likes to be labeled) where you sometimes lose the guitars, or the bass or even the drums. The opening song utilizes pick scraping with a phaser. They have a very good original sound. It's a very complex swirl of melody and it's blurry but at the same time, clear. You'll just have to listen for yourself to see what I mean.
Production rating 8/10
Songwriting 8/10
The Archaic Course
Guitars - Oystein G. Brun
Guitars - Jens F. Ryland
Drums - Grim
Bass - Kai K. Lie
Vocals - Simen Hestneas (Vortex)
Synths - Ivar Bjornson
1. Oceans rise
2. Universal
3. The Witching Hour
4. The Black Token
5. Ad Noctum
6. Nocturnal Vision
7. Winter Millennium
8. Fields of Long Gone Presence
This album is a lot better than The Olden Domain. Though lead singer Garm is gone, he has been replaced by Vortex, who appeared as a session vocalist on Arcturus' La Masquerade Infernale. He is a good replacement. There are a lot of excellent clean vocals as well as the traditional black metal screams and howls. What makes this album different is that the songs flow much more naturally. That's what really separates it from The Olden Domain.
Production rating 10/10
Songwriting 9 or 10/10
The Official Borknagar website.
Click here for the main page.