THE OLDEN DOMAIN

This is my favourite Borknagar album so far. Therefore I give it 4 stars, because I think, every prog connoisseur should a listen at it. But I have to point out that this is prog metal, i.e. it derived from black metal, so it may sound to harsh for the fans of more gentle prog. As a progressing out of black metal, the band kept stylistic trademarks as the lyrical themes of nature, winter and pagan belief - since their from Norway like many black metal bands in that time.

Instrumentally they use tempo shifts from time to time, accelerating the pace to what can be called blast beat as a musical term used in metal. They use atmospheric keyboards and in the same way guitar riffs which makes their sound very dense at times, and additionally they use of course fast metal riffs and bm-style tremolo picking. The vocals range from harsh bm-style growling to clean vocals. Most of all I would consider this album as prog, because the songs have a developing structure, which is what I closely connect to prog music. The album contains two calm instrumentals: Om Hundrede aar er Alting Glemt and Ascension of Our Fathers, the other songs have vocals. Best songs in my opinion are The Winterway and the two titles To Mount and Rove and Grimland Domain which are merged together as really one song.