Karmanjaka – I Törnrosdalen (CD, 2016)

Karmanjaka are a band from Sweden that play a very raw and melodic form of black metal. Military style drum beats start off the EP along with some melodic guitar leads a few seconds later which are also utilized on the later songs as well as a brief use of chants and after the into the music gets heavier while still utilizing melody and also adding grim black metal screams onto the recording. Most of the music sticks to either a slow or mid paced musical direction and all of the musical instruments have a very powerful sound to them and on the last track the music speeds up a bit and also adds in tremolo picking and blast beats which also gives the song more of a raw and old school black metal feeling. Karmanjaka play a style of black metal that is very cold, melancholic, melodic and raw sounding. The production sounds very dark and raw with an old school feeling while the lyrics are written in Swedish and cover cold and desolate themes. Recommended if you like old Bathory, Immortal, Dark Funeral, Dissection or Winterland.