Naglfar return to their harsher black-metal roots with 4th Full-length album "Pariah", having previously toyed with a more death-metal style in the past. But these days with most modern black-metal in the "troo" sense being much of a muchness - is there anything to distinguish Naglfar's wall of frosty noise from anyone else’s? Well.... sort of.

There is no denying the band's energy for the music - each track thunders along with blood curdling precision, the musical equivalent of Satan with a sore head. It also helps having recently seen the band live - meaning this reviewer can safely clarify that their lead singer Ollie is a certifiable Class A Nut job. But at the end of the day that doesn't necessarily make for an enjoyable listen.

It does make a refreshing change to hear some straightforward black metal that has a half decent production (i.e. Not recorded through a wall with a Dictaphone in someone's mountain cabin) but there are still some problems - the main one being the drums - which are far too high in the mix. The drum production is very oddly done - making it sound like the drummer is playing a kit of tightly packed cardboard boxes, rather than a meaty set of drums. So not exactly the epic, pounding blast beats of doom you could wish for in such a record.

The vocal work sounds impressive and genuinely evil (quite a good thing with Black Metal) but sometimes the songs don't really rise above anything exceptional, tending to blend into a continuous round of screams and harsh black-metal speed guitar. It's certainly not bad music at all; and occasionally it rises above the norm to make for some epic tunes - just not REALLY often enough.

Little bits of genius creep in - such as the song "And The World Shall Be Your Grave" and also the fabulous chorus of "Perpetual Horrors" - if only there were a few more of those "Holy shit - that was great!" moments and this album would be a classic, as it stands, it's maybe something worth checking out if you like Black Metal and have a few spare pennies at the end of the month.

Standout Tracks:  Perpetual Horrors, And the World Shall Be Your Grave.

Overall Score:   7.5 /10