It has been quite a while since I last reviewed Ole Alexander Myrholt, in fact it was his 2017 second album, ‘Med Samme Naal, Under Samme Maane’, and this is his sixth album since then. The title of this one translates to ‘Mixed Opinions And Aphorisms’, which makes somewhat more sense than the last I heard (‘With the Same Needle, Under the Same Moon’), but it still not exactly clear. What is apparent though, is that Ole is still following the same vein of old-school Norwegian and Swedish Black Metal, so much so that if this had been sent to be on cassette with dire audio, I would have thought it was a lost gem from those days.
The sound is quite muddied at times, with the vocals not as prominent as one might expect, which is surely deliberate, designed to create a feeling of a time gone by. It feels as if it has come to us straight from the underground, from the times when all Black Metal bands had their photos taken in forests with snow on the ground (his publicity shot is of his shadow on a boulder) and never thought of ever reaching the commercial mainstream. His concession to modern times is the use of some dialogue from films, Georgian backing vocals, and some simple keyboards to provide a high-level balance, but for the most part this is a time machine back to the days when the scene was as well known for its church burning and murders as it was for the music itself. This is genuine traditional black metal from someone who is determined to keep it that way, and even the odd interlude feels right as it drives us then further into the dark.
Rating: 7/10
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/olealexandermyrholt/
https://archivist-records.com/