Ondfødt – Dödsrikets Kallelse (Review)

Ondfødt are a Finnish black metal band and this is their second album.

We’ve met Ondfødt before on 2014’s Hexkonst, which I found to be quite an enjoyable blast of largely traditional rawness.

Dödsrikets Kallelse provides us with 36 minutes of unholy blackened fury.

The songs are generally a little shorter on this new release when compared to their debut album, indicating the band’s increased preference for icy aggression and hate-fuelled intensity. Having said that, however, I should note that this certainly isn’t a one dimensional assault, and Ondfødt show that they have a good range of tools available to them in their black metal toolbox.

Whether blasting with furious passion, or grooving with classic appeal, Ondfødt are a band that know their material well and how to cater it to their audience. They’re more than capable of throwing out some strong riffs too. Dark melodies are used well, as was the case on the band’s first album. Their effectiveness as been refined further though, and some of the tracks on Dödsrikets Kallelse demonstrate a good grasp of blackened atmosphere, (the instrumental song Dödens Dröm is the most well-realised example of this).

The savage snarls of the singer are easily digested for those brought up on second wave screams. The general range of vocal of attack has narrowed in focus since Hexkonst, (with the exception of the last song, a cover), but this hasn’t impacted on the quality of the songs at all. Combined with the rest of the music on Dödsrikets Kallelse Ondfødt tick all of the relevant boxes necessary for an enjoyable album.

This is a release that will easily appeal to the old-school black metallers out there, while also having enough personality and presence to allow the band to be their own masters.