KALEIKR
Heart Of Lead
DEBEMUR MORTI Iceland’s new breed give progressive death a makeover
The strength of the Icelandic metal underground continues to astonish. Kaleikr have emerged from the ashes of Draugsól, whose sole album, Volaða
Land, garnered widespread acclaim in 2017. While still bearing traces of that record’s blackened machinations, Heart Of
Lead is more firmly rooted in progressive death metal, albeit with an underlying and oh-so-icelandic sense of unearthly disquiet. The most obvious comparison to be made here is Enslaved, whose genre-defying lust for the new is mirrored in the stately crescendos and intuitive detours of The
Descent and in the succinct squall of the title track.
But like many of their fellow countrymen, Kaleikr’s take on hazily familiar tropes feels unprecedented; the atmosphere that oozes from every pore of wearily anti-cosmic closer Eternal Stalemate And A Neverending Sunset seems to herald the arrival of an extraordinary and potential epoch-melting new force.
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FOR FANS OF: Enslaved, Svartidauði, Gorguts