Mini-Review: Naglfar – Téras: Ehh…

Téras

I first listened to Naglfar in the mid-90s when I heard Enslave The Astral Fortress and later Vittra. Sure, it wasn’t the greatest of albums and the drum beats were rather predictable, but it was pretty friggin’ awesome in 1995. After some changes, I was incredibly satisfied with both Pariah and Harvest. But that was 5 years ago. Téras has been a long time coming and now that it’s here…I’m disappointed.

Téras is a heavy, fast metal record with Wrath’s trademark vocals and on paper, it’s everything I love about music. However, it just doesn’t catch me. The production leaves me a little bothered, with the drums drowning out the guitars on several key points. The songs are not nearly as memorable as the last few records and barring a pair of tracks towards the end, nothing grabs me. I compare this to Kalmah’s For The Revolution. This was the first Kalmah record to not be as good as its predecessor. Ultimately, it’s the weakest in their catalog but it’s still worth a listen, particularly Coward. Unlike that album, I liken Téras to recent albums of Iron Maiden, etc. The album is good enough, but why listen to it when you have better music from the same band?

After the epic awesomeness of the last few albums, I’m disappointed this doesn’t live up. That’s always unfair for bands, particularly after a long hiatus. Sadly, the best thing about this album is that they’re still using the Naglfar logo and never changed that.

Leave a Reply