Årabrot - Norwegian Gothic (2021) [Official Digital Download]

I’m going to be brutally honest; until now I’ve never listened to Årabrot. Even though they have an extensive back-catalogue, clocking in at nine albums including Norwegian Gothic, they were a band that completely flew under my radar. They’ve been around for two decades, but I didn’t fully clock them. I was however aware of them. Back when I was in college, an acquaintance who hung around the post-grad office, who was always into interesting music and art, told me about Årabrot.

In describing his new favourite band to me I noticed that he didn’t really attempt to tell me about the music (apart from comparing them to Swans) but instead focused more on the dark aesthetic that lead vocalist/guitarist Kjetil Nernes conveyed. Pulling out his phone to present to me a portrait of a very serious looking man, heavily weighed down by a wide-brimmed, black, nineteenth-century vernacular hat, I shrugged; ‘Okay, cool. I’ll check them out’. I never did. Until now.

Norwegian Gothic (a play on Grant Wood’s celebrated American Gothic) is Årabrot’s latest album, releases this Friday on Pelagic Records who have rostered post-metal heavy weights Cult of Luna and Ireland’s own God is an Astronaut. When I did a little research on Årabrot, I was reminded of Nernes’ ominous black-clad portrait. ‘Oh yeah…the hat’.

TRACKLIST

1. Årabrot - Carnival of Love
2. Årabrot - The Rule of Silence
3. Årabrot - Feel It On
4. Årabrot - The Lie
5. Årabrot - The Crows
6. Årabrot - Kinks of the Heart
7. Årabrot - Hailstones for Rain
8. Årabrot - The Voice
9. Årabrot - Hallucinational
10. Årabrot - (This is) The Night
11. Årabrot - Hard Love
12. Årabrot - Impact Heavily onto the Concrete
13. Årabrot - Hounds of Heaven
14. Årabrot - Deadlock
15. Årabrot - The Moon is Dead
16. Årabrot - You're Not That Special



Thanks to the Original customer.