Two things I have always loved with bands is the combination of metal and Norse mythology theming whether it is in the sound of the music or the lyrical content. King of Asgard is a very much a melodic death metal band with influences that range all the way to black metal, but remains battle charged and ready to rile up any Viking horde.

The Runes of Hel begins in with attractive tremolo picking from the guitars providing a more progressive black metal feel to start. Right away, Karg is an album in which you will want to explore your inner darkened, and war crazed self. The Trickster is slower that follows afterwards, but is one of the heavier pieces found. The simple Viking chant at the beginning, to the beautiful bend of the strings which harmonize after a hefty war hardened riff make it an album easily to become hooked onto very early on.

Easily one of the best songs found on the album is about halfway through entitled Remnant of the Past. The guitar chords during the intro immediately opens up into one of my favorite riffs of the entire year and a heavy colossal riff it is indeed. The album takes a short break from time to time from the melodic death metal vocal shrieks, such as this song, to open up with more layered clean voices to add a nice touch, but these moments are very few.

Hammering guitar riffs and pounding drums continues with The Heritage Throne. Again, King of Asgard layer on more heavy and hard-boiled guitar riffs that are extremely solid. As the album comes to a close, the final track Rising is one of the strongest and memorable endings to an album I have heard this year. The intricate “Norse sounding” guitar work at the start is a beautifully dark and sophisticated approach, but the song pummels forward with more wild riffs and lets the album end with a complete absence of weakness.

Sweden’s King of Asgard and their latest album Karg is easily one of the most enjoyable albums this summer. It’s great to see bands such as this keeping melodic death metal from becoming stale, but doing so in their own Nordic fashion.