review by: Roberto Martinelli

I can barely write this review without bursting into tears. It's not fair to Naglfar, who I'm sure mean well, but it's that the other Nagelfar - the one with the extra "e," the one from Germany - is now an ex-band, having broken up last year. And every mention of this alive and well Swedish group makes me lament what could have been. For you see, not only is Nagelfar clearly Naglfar's superior, but superior to just about any black metal band out there.

But enough of that. The issue at hand is Sheol, Naglfar's latest record. And it's a good record; clearly better than the also good MCD we reviewed in issue #7. Naglfar's music is fast and, in true Swedish fashion, crammed with as much musical fuzz and amorphousness as possible while still remaining totally tight and orchestrated, supplying plenty of little melodies to pick at. If you need a comparison, think Dissection but faster and slicker.

However, the commentary in the review in issue #7 still remains true about this band now as it ever has: there's just something missing. For all the fancy shmancy production and effort in playing as extremely and as well as possible, there's an issue of a lack of clear identity or, dare I say it, soul. Sheol blasts along, but there's nothing about it that says, "this is Naglfar." ("the Swedish band," at that.)

Please excuse my inability to leave out Nagelfar in all this. Imagine if there were a band called Iron Meiden from Holland that somehow became very popular, but to you were just a shell compared to the band that totally owns your soul every time you put on one of its albums. Could you ever listen to the other guys entirely impartially?

Do I expect Naglfar to be more like Nagelfar? Of course not, in a stylistic sense; that would be absurd. But what I do wish is that Naglfar could somehow soothe the hurt of one of my favorite bands breaking up too soon by putting out something that really brings something more than just another excellently put together and played Swedish extreme metal album that doesn't have much to it beyond that. In my perfect world, Naglfar would be the ones who broke up. Snif. (6/10)