Stilla

“My early impressions are fully confirmed: this is a work of rare force, integrity and intellectual honesty and intelligence. One of the best black metal albums I have come across in recent times, one which refuses to play the trump cards of extreme lo-fi and overwhelming, decadent drama, choosing instead the higher path of balancing bleak despondency with stark sobriety.

It reflects a smart, down-to-earth vikingness that rejects the lure of tempestuously romantic Wagnerian scenarios, digging deep in the face of a harsh environment, always a metaphor for death and the void beyond it. In spite of its unsettling ghostly eeriness, what captivates me about Stilla’s sound is a fierce sense of resolve and practical creativity stemming implicitly and inevitably from the constant fight against the elements, always on the edge of madness, always on the edge of survival…

Ultimately the Swedes, throughout this bleak, honest, old-school approach imbued with an unmistakable avant feeling that pushes the work above the rest, stare at the ineluctable with a level of self-respect that, lamentably, is rarely encountered. Till Stilla Falla will keep growing in time, eventually taking its full form when the lyrics will hopefully come forth to me: I am convinced it will be one of the few recent albums I shall go back to whenever I need to restore my faith in music! ” – Avantgarde-metal.com