The Norsemen are coming, the Norsemen are coming! If you're an admirer of Norwegian extreme metal, this is certainly the case -- especially considering the fourth release overall by
Vreid, 2009's
Milorg. With sights now set on conquering America, the quartet will satisfy the needs of just about any fan of modern-day extreme metal, while managing to avoid being as one-dimensional as most of the other bands in the genre. Despite just about all the tracks including pushed-to-the-max riffing/bashing/screaming, here and there one can detect elements of
Sabbath ("Disciplined"), prog metal ("Speak Goddamnit"), and a group that just about every modern-day metal act seems to be referencing --
Iron Maiden (the instrumental "Blücher, Pt. 2"). As far as state-of-the-art extreme metal goes,
Vreid's
Milorg will be pretty tough to beat. ~ Greg Prato