Review by Felix on August 4, 2026.

Norway's black metal scene has a legendary reputation. All of you with black and white make-up on the face know this. But Dødsfall is not among the first five (or ten?) names that come to mind when thinking about the heroes that made this scene so famous. By the way, Norway's dominant position is long gone. In the mid-nineties, nobody could ignore it, but today the once great names seem to fight their final battles. Almost a decade between two studio albums is nothing out of the ordinary. Summing up, a Dødsfall album from 2026 starts from a difficult position.

But true to the motto "you have no chance, so make the best out of it", lone wolf Ishtar has forged a full-length that raises hell properly. He unites more or less all elements of the classic Norwegian black metal and he does it in a competent way. Icy high speed outbursts, tragic mid-tempo parts and a small number of atmospheric parts go hand in hand on "Själssluk" ("Soul-eater"). I really can't for the life of me think of anything wrong with highlights like "Dödsfallets Bortgång". It is not only clever to use titles that catapult the listener back to albums like Gorgoroth's "Antichrist" – of course it is much more important that the tracks have a lot of substance. All tempo changes make sense, the dynamic of many pieces is excellent and the guitar lines are genre-typical yet fresh. Perhaps Is should have worked a bit more on making the individual songs more distinct. But this is no big problem from my side. Black metal does not ask for single hits, but for an authentic performance of consistently good quality. And it goes without saying that Dødsfall play "true black metal" or "äkta Svart Metall" – the booklet offers more than only one language to make us understand the style of the one man army.

The complete absence of external influences results more or less logically in a pretty generic approach. But to use fork and knife like everybody else does not mean that the male itself is bad. Head chef Is is very skilled at combining familiar ingredients. Not a single break hurts the flow of the album, even though they give the songs an unexpected new direction every now and then. No obvious downer makes me hit for the skip button. The artist must have felt at peace with himself after recording the album. Eight tracks, almost every single one of which is compelling, plus an intro and an outro that build suspense – with that, he can go to sleep with a clear conscience at the end of the creative process.

Production-wise, "Själssluk" shines with a dense and voluminous yet not overloaded mix. We are not confronted with the most aggressive guitar sound ever – the level of harshness lies somewhere between Dimmu's "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" and Gehenna's "Second Spell". So the guitars have a melodic component, but especially during the extremely fast sections (you find some of them in "Mörkerfångad" or "Svart Själs Arv") they do not lack intensity. What's more, to round off the production, both the drums and Is's spiteful curses really come into their own. The same goes for the eerie keyboards that enrich "Nattskugga" and "Förbannelsen" in a discreet manner. So yes, Dødsfall have released an album that reminds me of the times when Norway was not only geographically at the top of Europe. Their furious side ("Blodmåne", "Den Mörkaste Dagen") is better than their comparatively soft face ("Ondskans Röst"), but at the end of the day, the entire album presents a storm of partly ferocious, partly elegant, Sweden-affine black metal melodies. If Norway wants to fight its way back to the forefront of the black metal movement, a first small step has been taken.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10