“Silva Nordica” is black metal in the vein of the nordic style and away from the clean, cheesy commercialised blackys that are around today. The songs breath some kind of Alastor-typical melancholy, no matter how dark and heavy the song may be. Here and there Alastor play with changes of speed, metal styles and interludes, making the songs varied, although two songs sound similar. My personal favourite is Falckenstein, I just love this song. The way the guitars spread out melancholy while the veil of blackmetal enshrouds you is very cool. A reviewer wrote that this song let cold showers run down the spine. And that is true, even after listening countless times to this song, I still feel the cold waving down my back. Silva Nordica starts with an instrumental intro, but unlike many blackmetal bands that are opening with a choral or orchestral intro, Alastors intro is a guitardriven, black piece.

Alastor have a kind of ill humor, so they enjoy us with a track called Prologue, where you can hear 1 minute slow guitars being the background for the noise of the stertorousness of a dying or at least very ill man. I hope Alastor will go on this way, they are definitely coarsed diamonds, not only within the austrian black metal scene. Surely, they can improve a little bit here and there (more power to the drums for example), but this release is the buying worth: Black but melodic, full power into your face but emotional, melancholic, great guitars, and a little bit ill.

Standout tracks: Falckenstein, Silva Nordica, Comfort the silence

written by Blake

Playing time: 45.40