Bifrost, the debut release from Ardent Land, doesn’t fuck about. It is an assault on the senses, a horde army that has stormed the barricades and is waging a war on you. It’s a fight, and one you are not going to win. Quite frankly, it’s fucking brutal, but as I said in my review of Molh, sometimes I just want a band that grabs me by the throat and chokes the ever loving shit out of me, and Ardent Land does just that.

There isn’t one track on Bifrost that clocks in at over 3:20. In fact, only two of them break the three minute mar and this helps the whole album clock in at a scant 17 minutes, meaning it never outstays its welcome and leaves you hungry for more. At it’s core, Ardent Land’s Bifrost has a pure black metal heart, with roaring drums that are pounded into submission with perfect precision, guitars that pummel you into the ground like a wooden stake, and vocals that are akim to a war cry from the Devil himself, but it isn’t limited to the constraints that would usually tie a band up when they fillow the black metal path.

I’ve said on numerous occasions that I wish newer black metal bands would push the boundaries of the genre by not soley relying so heavily on the blueprint that was set out by the likes of Mayhem, et all over 30 plus years ago, and Ardent Land do just that. No, it isn’t as experimental as some of the other artists I’ve reviewed on this site, but it doesn’t need to be.

The drums don’t get caught up in the need to be a continuous blast beat – though their are enough on offer to satisfy even the elitist of the elites – and they offer layer upon layer for the guitars to build on, which they do expertly. If the song needs to be driven to the marching feet of an invading army – such as in the case of Heathen Heart – then Ardent Land will follow that bloody path, and if it needs to be smashing a battle axe into your face at a million miles an hour – as Bifrost’s opening track Heimdall does to perfection – then Ardent Land will quite happily accommodate your grizzly downfall.

Every army needs a great commander, the one who barks the orders, and nowhere is this more evident than here, as the vocals Bifrost offers are those of a deranged madman, spitting out a narrative of war, hate, and hell, as if they are possessed by Lucifer themselves. It is an intoxicating concoction, brewed from the bones of the four horsemen, and one I will quite happily drink from again and again. Ardent Land’s Bifrost is 17 minutes of pure, unadulterated chaos, and I strongly urge you to check it out for yourself.

Find Bifrost from Ardent Land over on their Bandcamp Page.