If Sigur Rós embody Iceland’s ethereal, enigmatic grandeur, their countrymen Sólstafir represent its darker, more igneous side.
Hin Helga Kvöl is an album of deep contrasts, shifting between the sonically aggressive and the oddly comforting. If the heads-down title track and Nú Mun Ljósið Deyja’s quasi-blast beats and animal roars might stray too close to extreme metal for some tastes, they’re offset by the gothic, slow-burning Sálumessa – Comfortably Numb caught in a snowstorm at dusk – and the shapeshifting Grýla, where the blizzard of guitars gives way to coruscating beauty, adding an chilly Icelandic twist to the usual post-rock tropes.
Then there’s closer Kuml, which mixes dramatic, Heilung-style chanting and mildly incongruous bursts of saxophone without making a fool of itself.
As always, singer and guitarist Aðalbjörn Tryggvason’s anguished voice and native-tongue vocals is the connective tissue that holds together everything here, and links it to Sólstafir’s earlier albums.
Like those records, Hin Helga Kvöl is sometimes challenging, frequently mesmerising and always unique.
Hin Helga Kvöl is on sale now via Century Media.
