Metal Hammer (UK)

KALEIKR

Heart Of Lead

- DOM LAWSON

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

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