Skelepht is the third album from these atmospheric Swedish Black Metal artists Dråpsnatt, and I was drawn to this album when I heard the title track on You Tube!

Whilst I love the music, I do find that I do need to be in the right frame of mind to tackle the vocals, and it can be a challenging listen. The style here is out and out screaming with despair, although the lower death metal style growling is also employed as is some clean/chanting and this is really effective.

The band are said to be pretty spontaneous when it comes to writing and this adds an edgy feel to the recording, not quite knowing what is next. Musically the album mixed plenty of clever tremolo picking alongside some nice folk melodies; some ‘post-metal’ type interludes, with some dark keyboards.

Tracks like ‘Valan’ take you on a bit of a journey with some calm moments before the onslaught. In a nutshell, if you like atmospheric black metal thematically referring to nature, winter and man’s destruction of himself and the world in which he inhabits, this is for you! If you don’t, but like extreme metal give this a listen, as I think it has some broader appeal overall challenging but ultimately very rewarding listen.

For fans of Totalselfhatred, Enslaved, Shining, Emperor and Extreme Metal!