Kvaen- The Formless Fires LP (Dark Midnight Blue Marbled Vinyl)

There have been many great extreme metal bands from Sweden, but only one from Kalix. This remote beauty spot near the Finnish border, on the northernmost shores of the Baltic, is home to Jacob Björnfot, creative mastermind behind Kvaen (named after the folk who populated the area in the Viking era). Kvaen’s third album ‘The Formless Fires’ – their first for those world-renowned headhunters at Metal Blade Records – is a sumptuous but bitingly intense exploration of beauty and violence, a melodic black metal masterwork radiating an inspirational sense of place. Even more than 2020’s folky, speed metal-infused debut ‘The Funeral Pyre’ or 2022’s compelling, expansive follow-up ‘The Great Below’, the vast pine woods and icy lakes are powerfully evoked in the elemental gloom riffs, chilly melodies and windswept solos running through these eight mighty, meaty songs.