Sólstafir - Berdreyminn

Sólstafir of the beautiful country of Iceland have, I think, found the sound on this project (which, while not the manifestation of their fully realized potential) that will lead to the production of their best work, of which this is the start. While what the band play is not the most ground-breaking post-metal in the world, they have found their groove within the style and seem to have cultivated a writing style that compliments their unique tendencies and the genre that produce a modestly varied record. Songs like “Hula” catch them in a more ethereal post-rock state of mind and give the record some valuable emotional width, while songs like the introductory “Silfur-Refur” show traces of the band’s past experience with Viking metal in a slightly folky post-metal adventure, which much of the rest of the album accomplishes by slightly different mechanisms. As for what the album accomplishes, it’s in the vein of what most post-metal albums seem to traverse, a meditative, but dynamic path through a variety of emotional territories. I think Sólstafir have shown that they are continuing to improve themselves even at this stage in their career, and this album is certainly one that I will enjoy returning to throughout the year and probably much later as well.