Kampfar – Profan (Review)

This is the seventh album from Norwegian Black Metallers Kampfar.

Kampfar play Black Metal with speed and melody, drawing the listener in and then slicing at them with hidden blades.

Serrated screams and powerful cleans are both used to great effect on this release. The screams provide the focal point as they are meant to, while the cleans add an emotive enhancement to the songs that works really well.

Kampfar incorporate influences from both Melodic and Pagan Black Metal into their sound, as well as Progressive Black Metal elements akin to, (but not as pronounced as), a band like Enslaved. This results in songs that have a characterful epic feeling to them in addition to the razor sharp edge of Blackened aggression that they foster so well.

The songs are well-written and played, with lots to keep the interest of the listener. Some of the guitar melodies are particularly compelling and taken holistically there’s a grand amount of atmosphere contained on this release.

Highly recommended.