Kvist - For Kunsten Maa Vi Evig Vike

Lets see here. Grainy black and white photo, check. Corpse paint, check. Norwegian, check. From the 90's, check. Yep, this is some true necro kvlt shit right here. A legit band with street cred.

I recently came across this often overlooked gem a few months ago. Its been in heavy rotation ever since. Kvist was a short lived project which, like I mentioned, was based in Norway. They formed in 1993 and managed to put out a demo and one full length before splitting up a couple of years later.

Black metal has steadily gained popularity since its onslaught roughly twenty years ago, and most of the first and second wave bands are well known today. Kvist has remained under the radar simply because of their short career and limited discography. It doesn't help that they didn't commit suicide, murder anyone, or partake in cannibalism (which means less street cred). I mean its like helloooo guys. How do you expect anyone to hear about your band if you spend all your time playing good music and not committing heinous crimes? Pshh.

While they lacked the criminal element of their peers they wrote music that surpassed many of them. This is pretty straight forward black metal instrumentation; guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard. I'm pretty picky about keyboards in metal personally. Ive heard all to many black metal records ruined by a cheesy midi orchestra sound, way to high in the mix, played by someone who sounds like they had down's syndrome and mangled fingers. Luckily that is not the case here. The keyboard sound is acceptable, the level is reasonable, and the playing is respectable. It's one of the rare cases where the keyboards actually add something to the music.

Kvist leans toward the "melodic" side of things although not as far as Dissection.
This is a relatively short album, clocking under forty minutes. There is no filler here. This is pure quality from start to finish.

Most of the members of Kvist are active in other bands but at the time of this writing I haven't had a chance to check those out. I plan to in the near future and your recommendations are always welcome.



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