The Jötunn are, at least to my ears, what would happen if Death Metal and Black Metal got into a fight, and after the blood and the teeth stopped flying they both decided to go and give Alternative Metal a kicking for good measure. It’s loud, it’s aggressive and, on their EP Summoner, it is brought to glorious life before your very eyes.

This is the kind of music I’d imagine Frankenstein’s monster would listen to if he wanted to unwind.

The three tracks on offer on the Summoner – the title track, This Life Must End in Fear, and Ulceration – are some of the heaviest hitters I have come across since Mike Tyson in his prime. Everything on this record either roars or pounds you relentlessly, from the guitars to the vocals to the Devil’s own rhythm section, every passage, every time change, every utterance that falls from the singers ravaged throat, are all designed to pummel you into utter submission. You will bang your head until your neck feels like it is about to snap and you will fucking like it.But just to mark this down as an exceptional crossing of genres is to do it a disservice.

There are layers to The Jötunn, layers that might not be obvious at first, second, or even third listen. You would have to be deaf as a fucking post not to pick up on the fact that The Jötunn write music that may be angrier than a bag of rabid badgers that has been poked by a pointy stick, yet still manages to maintain a melodic structure that is as addictive as Colombian marching powder, but there are subtle, gentler notes played under these songs via keyboards and vocal harmonies that fill out the sound to the point of bursting.

The fact is that Summoner by The Jötunn should be on the shopping list of all extreme metal fans. Which you can do by heading on over to their Bandcamp Page.