Review by Alex on May 12, 2018.

Svederna hail from Sweden; their style of “black metal” on Svedjeland is filled with landscapes and switch-ups in musical patterns that are very riff driven. The band identifies as being ‘black metal”, however, the lyrics on here are far from Satanic in the traditional black metal sense. The lyrics are anti-establishment but they are delivered in a cryptic manner in most cases; that would require some amount of consideration before arriving at any given conclusion/s. 

The music is decent but has a rough production throughout the album. Imagine a merging of Kampfar and Trelldom where the musical composition is concerned and then under layered with lots of static. Svederna plays using much repetition in guitar riffs or tremolo picking on the album; they do provide many variations of the standard riffs within the verses. Tempo changes are also prominent on Svedjeland specifically on songs such as “Do I Tid” and “Evardlig”. Speaking of “Do I Tid” the vocalist really ramps up the pace and kicks into overdrive; showcasing unadulterated speed and a serious amount of stamina to facilitate the momentum the vocals are pitched out at. The barks are filled with anger and are further amplified by the lyrical content. The album has the same feeling throughout its 37 minutes but becomes repetitious gearing towards the final 2 songs “Har Av Hin” and “knol” but manages to keep you interested at times with catchy guitar work; tremolo wise.

If you're new to this style of music, the production will require a lot of patience; however, if you have enjoyed albums like Filosofem (having background static and noise), you should be ok going into Svedjeland. There’s nothing innovative about Svedjeland it does what it set out to accomplish and keeps a balanced head for the most part. Its ok "black metal" with a few changes here and there; not the best, but certainly not the worst.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10