Having watched numerous documentaries on Discovery channel about hapless explorers getting stranded in the frozen North, I now have another form of media to assist me in experiencing how cold and lonely such a wretched ordeal must be.

LORN's latest white-out saps the warmth from your inner core and removes your sense of perspective, mainly due to the featureless expanses brought to mind. There is little to relieve the ears, the buzzing consistency of the music is only defined by whether the depiction is of frigid snow sprites spiralling across the Tundra or driving ice storms removing any sense of form. With frostbite being a potential side effect of listening to this album, you had better invest in some furry covers for your head phones.

The title track begins the proceedings, presented at a mid pace it suggests the beginning of a voyage into Arctic gloom, the slogging through snow preventing any greater progress. “Watching The Landscapes Of Silent Nothing” borrows elements from the preceding song but mainly concentrates on rapidly sweeping along with cold contempt. The frozen fizz of the guitars adds a brittleness and also nibbles at your extremities confusing your nerve endings so that you don't know whether to register warmth or the actual sub-zero shutting down your capillaries.

“Trolls. Hordes. Axes.” sounds just like it should, a rollicking barrage of blizzarding Black Metal with vocals growling out clouds of ice crystals, the slow snarl acting as an arrogant counterpoint to the racing tempo. There are times when the pace drops to a trot but the sense of a journey remains through this and every track, bleak it may be but the hypnotic effect draws you along despite the lack of way points. For a true demonstration of sheet ice riffing “Through Artery Of Ice” conveniently hits the spot, again surging along with gusto, blast beats accompany the glacial guitar work and this time there is little in the way of respite.

Much as Arctic peoples have numerous words for snow, LORN have more than one way of evoking the cold white panorama they portray. “Hypnotic Snowfall” is an instrumental that describes the slow cloaking of the land as those large flakes gently fall to earth without a wind to hurry them. The fractal dirge of jangled guitar on this track sets the listener up nicely for the bolt from the hole that is “Raetia.” I make no secret of the fact that I like an album to finish with a barn stormer and so LORN have me chuckling with delight here. Though there is a slow mid section, complete with harsh demented cries, it starts fast and finishes like the rabbit that has seen the fox.

All in all, LORN have succeeded in composing an album which shuns much in the way of variety yet which still provides enough subtle nuance to prevent tedium setting in. It is sometimes a difficult act to pull off but they have managed it. This is the sort of music that would have made Captain Oates' sacrifice easier to bear.

(Online December 30, 2006)