The Archaic Course - Borknagar

Borknagar was founded in Norway in 1995, and while the band's first couple of albums were black metal albums, The Archaic Course, the band's third album from 1998, is a very different story all together. "The Archaic Course" is very slightly folk music inspired. Some even refer to this album as "viking metal". An integral element of the sound of this album is the voice of Simen Hestnæs (I.C.S. Vortex), most known for the majestic clean singing in Dimmu Borgir. His approach to singing on this album is his melodic, epic trademark voice, although he also does some black metal vocals on one song. In terms of instrumentation, there ...  Read the complete review

There's nothing inherently wrong with Borknagar's third album, but it does tend towards sounding like a less accomplished and less interesting version of its predecessor 'The Olden Domain,' fortunately standing apart thanks to the very different vocal style of new singer I.C.S. Vortex, who would remain for the customary two albums before departing for Dimmu Borgir. Vortex is the voice I first associated with this band despite him being my least favoured now I've seen the bigger picture, dazzling my young ears with the majestic song 'Colossus' from this album's successor, until one day I noticed how much he sounded like a black metal Kermit the Frog, and it became harder ...  Read the complete review