With all the weird permutations black metal has gone through over the past five to ten years, sometimes, a guy just wants something cold and frostbitten, with maybe a touch of necro thrown in there for good measure. And how could you get more frostbitten than a band named Nordafrost, with an album entitled Back to the Shores of Grey? If this doesn’t scream grim and kvlt, I don’t know what does.

All kidding aside, this is actually a pretty decent album. The brand of black metal kicked out here is very traditional: buzzsaw guitars, blasting drums, and croaking vocals. The riffs here are generally quite enjoyable, displaying a reasonable measure of sophistication projected through a cold, raw tone. This is not to imply that the production is bad, however; pretty much everything is crystal clear, which helps in deciphering the wall of sound that the group throws at the listener. That said, it basically ignores the bass, which might as well not be playing for most of the songs. Of course, if you’re listening for this, you’re looking for true black metal, which can’t feature audible bass—that would warm the frost.

But all is not wholly well in this icy cavern of blackness (which, admittedly, is tinged with some death influence, especially during the vocals). Sure, the songs may blend together some, what with keeping the same basic tempo and all throughout the album (though, in all fairness, this does modulate some with each song), but that’s to be expected, right? To some extent, it seems almost symptomatic of anything taking a more varied approach than Darkthrone; by using more than two riffs per song, which Nordafrost most assuredly does, it becomes hard to pin one sound to any one track, making it difficult to locate oneself unless one basically has the album memorized. In all fairness, though, the song transitions are noticeable, and, though they lack real hooks, one could potentially argue that this is a mark of sophistication and a noble ignoring of convention.

No, what really bothers me about this release are the vocals. When I was more of a neophyte to black metal, I maintained that vocals did not matter, as the focus lies on the guitars and sound as an ensemble, so as to make it easier to digest the harsh growls that sounded so foreign to my ears. While the part about the ensemble is entirely true, it ignores the fact that a good growl style can augment and enhance the music, while, similarly, a wretched style can genuinely hurt the music—this is part of why I’ve never gotten into grindcore. Unfortunately, the aforementioned croaks on this album are far from my liking. This would ordinarily not be a problem, except that, thanks to the nature of the production and a largely uniform guitar sound that doesn’t really match the lead singer’s voice at all, the vocals tend to dominate the songs, often to irritating effect. Unfortunately, these moments are often what stay with me most.

This is not to say this is a bad album at all. Far from it; there’s some genuinely interesting stuff going on in the riffs and song structure while still remaining firmly rooted in a traditional black metal sound, albeit one that does a bit more than dabble in death as well. However, the vocals simply are not good, and as a quarter of the ensemble’s sound—really, a third when you consider that the bassist could be spending all his time just standing there and looking evil for all anyone knows—they hurt my ability to really get into this album. When I can afford to listen closely, though, and focus on the guitars and drumming, I like what I hear. Ultimately, your enjoyment of this album will depend on how much you can get past the vocals. If you can, you may like this album very much; otherwise, you may end up having some difficulty.