Kvaen – The Formless Fire Review

Three albums into Jacob Björnfot's career as a quasi-one-man meloblack band Kvaen, some areas of reliability became evident. On the one hand, you know that each release will be entirely devoted to guitars: the riffs, the leads, the melodies, the harmonies, the dazzling and soaring solos. Any “atmosphere” is incidental. That's not the point. You know these riffs and melodies will be easy, memorable, and highly repeatable. You know, songwriting-wise, you'll get some scorching sprints and some thrilling epics. And at least one song about fire. On the production side, it's going to be clean, crisp and precise. Kvaenthe third album of The formless fire solidifies their status as comfort food in extreme metal. Like that seemingly unoriginated chili and cheese dip that Americans make for our Super Bowl parties, these are all ingredients you've eaten in roughly similar configurations many times before, but you can't stop to eat the shit out of it.

There couldn't be more Kvaen song as the album opener and lead single “The Formless Fire,” with its highly melodic tremolo riffs and oscillation between mid-pace stomping and careening explosion. As usual, Björnfot manages to put on record the kind of verve and urgency more easily evoked live, both instrumentally and with his unusually legible raspy black voice. Her Dissection-inspired melodic black metal is the main sound of The formless fire, but as usual, other genres creep into the mix. Previous album The Great Below often leaning towards traditional heavy metal and the Viking era Bathory, and while it's toned down a bit here, it still emerges in the final three tracks, starting with the epic “De dödas sång.” The drum The formless fire is more hard-hitting than previous releases, making it Björnfot's heaviest album to date. When things get turbulent on openers “Traverse the Nether” and “The Ancient Gods,” the sound even strays into blackened death metal territory. The latter particularly resembles his Swedish compatriots. Amon Amarthwhich makes sense since their former drummer Fredrik Andersson is on duty here.

Kvaen is a band made for playlists, and there are plenty of bangers ready for you to listen to The formless fire. As noted, the title track is squarely in the middle of their sound and well representative of their considerable strengths. That said, the real highlight here is “Basilisk,” an absolutely rabid black metal barn burner that features the best songs from The Great Below And The funeral pyre. In fact, Björnfot shouting the legendary monstrous serpent's name is up there with “Fire, Fucking Fire!” » as the most inspired vocal performances in his catalog. There is nothing as majestic as “Ensamvarg” on The formless fire, but “De dödas sång” comes close with its acoustic intro/outro, heroic guitar solo and battle march tempo. The brooding track “The Perpetual Darkness” is pure Nordic melodic black metal, equal parts melancholy and invigorating.

The slightly blackened death-leaning songs “Traverse the Nether” and “The Ancient Gods” aren't bad songs, but they're a bit out of Björnfot's comfort zone and lag behind the rest of The formless fire. That said, they are much better than the one dud, maybe first bad song Kvaen have already released “Tornets sång”. Stylistically, it departs significantly from the rest of the album to become a sort of stomping trad/death metal that never gets out of second gear. It would be jarring no matter where it appeared in the track order, but the formal left turn could be forgiven if it was a good song. As it stands, it gains a term Kvaen have always managed to avoid despite peddling hackneyed styles: generic. Luckily, the skip button is there, waiting to take me to the album's killer B-side.

Kvaen are too good a band to be burdened with the word “reliable”, which sounds damning with faint praise, but as they prove with The formless fire how consistent they are, the shoe fits. Maybe after one or two more records in the same vein my enthusiasm will start to wane, but it's hard to imagine that Björnfot will ever forget how to write a killer song. For now, I'm just going to enjoy the shit out of this chili cheese dip.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Revised format: 320 kbit/s mp3
Label: Metal blade discs
Websites: kvaenblacklion.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/officialkvaen
Releases around the world: June 21, 2024

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