Review: Netherbird “Hymns from Realms Yonder”

Netherbird “Hymns from Realms Yonder”

Some time ago I reviewed re-edition of one of older albums of this band. Here we have the newest music created by Swedes. Frankly I didn’t like ‘The Ghost Collector’ very much because it just was too sweet on my taste. There were fragments of more brisk playing, but even them was somehow candy in my opinion. But this album was out in 2008 and that was band’s debut full-length. Since those times NETHERBIRD evolved (what is natural in case of every band – at least should be) and it was evolution in right way, I have to say. I mean, there’s still quite huge element of melody in music, but this is what I can call Metal without any doubts. Riffs create a nice melody almost whole the time, but they’re also heavy as well. I can also hear some kind of brutality in them, too. This isn’t easy to explain because, as I mentioned, they’re first of all melodic. Bizmark (PNA) and Johan play very variable and you’ll find many technical tricks and so on. The same I can say about drumming. Fredrik beats with imagination and uses all parts of his instrument. Often it’s in middle tempo, but you can believe me – he knows how to speed up very well. It feels like he’d play more dynamic and just ballsy than on debut album. There’re also some influences (elements) of other kinds of music – subtle. Vocal is more in the vein of Black than Death Metal, but in the same time it isn’t very screechy anymore. There’s also much less keyboards in middle of the songs.

Generally Swedes present us real Metal here and play this ballsy. So if you like melody (but not candy one) in Metal then this stuff is created just for you. But in the same time you also must like some dose of brutality, too. If you like only one of these elements then it’ll be too melodic or too brutal for you.