Kampfar ‘Ofidians Manifest’
Album Review By Adam McCann
Indie Recordings/Black Metal
Kampfar have had an illustrious career within the Scandinavian black metal scene. Yes, the band have never received the same attention as Mayhem or been applauded and revered like Darkthrone or Immortal, but that never perturbed Kampfar, this band have kept their head down and delivered plenty of gems amongst the black metal catalogue. The Norwegian black metaller’s received particular praise for their last album, 2015’s ‘Profan’ and now Kampfar are ready to unleash their latest album to their cannon, the serpentine ‘Ofidians Manifest’.
Fans of Kampfar will be pleased to know that ‘Ofidians Manifest’ continues to adhere to the bands superb black metal past, picking up exactly where ‘Profan’ left off. Yet, with ‘Ofidians Manifest’, the band continue to explore various sonic avenues with the continuing addition of choral backing vocals which give the entire album an unsettling undercurrent that works exceptionally well and there are no better examples of this than during ‘Dominans’ and ‘Eremitt’. The latter of these songs even contains the memorable guitar melody to ‘Apache’ by The Shadows but delivered once again through an eerie choral crescendo and a minor tinkering piano that dominates the song and makes it one of the best works on the album.
However, ‘Ofidians Manifest’ is not initially grabbing, but much like the rest of Kampfar’s work, this album insidiously lurks within the record collection, innocuously grabbing repeated plays and before too long, it will find itself being more and more enjoyed. This is exactly how ‘Ofidian’s Manifest’ works and without a shadow of a doubt, it has set the black metal bar high for the year.
Rating : 88/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
