NORSE – Ascetic Coffin-Shaped Wooden CD Box Set with Gold Foiling (Limited and numbered to 75)

Dissonant black metal entity Norse have forged a unique sound over the years playing intense, bleak and somewhat futuristic music which they’ve only honed with each subsequent album. They play calculated, atonal yet highly rhythmic music delivered with machine-like precision which sounds markedly different and refreshing when most black metal bands are too reliant on their progenitors for laying down the framework. Never does it seem as though they’ve lost their way delving deep into the dissonant territories; Norse have a predefined trajectory even with its myriad variations and undulations. They adhere to their mutated sound which is awash with harsh, venomous vocals, adding character to the otherworldly mechanised riffing and unrelenting spasmodic waves of blasting. This long-running Australian band have created singular music that not only defies the trends but also holds its own alongside that of other similar-minded contemporaries on the label such as Replicant, Veilburner and Crypts of Despair.