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Kornmo — Fimbulvinter
(Apollon Records ARP056, 2021, CD / DL)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2022-02-19

Fimbulvinter Cover art

In Norse mythology, Fimbulvinter is the harsh winter that precedes Ragnarök, the armageddon event that puts an end to all life on Earth. Scholars think that this end times mythology is related to the harsh winter of 535 - 536 that caused a notable temperature drop across Northern Europe. Taking this mythology as inspiration for their third album, Norwegian band Kornmo has produced an excellent album of five instrumentals spanning 72 minutes recalling the heady days of 70s prog rock. Hailing from Trondheim, Norway Kornmo is the result of a 50 year collaboration between Odd-Roar Bakken and Nils Larsen. After their symphonic prog band Morild broke up in 2015, they still had a lot of music in them. NIls contributed themes, melody lines, and his faithful Fender Jazz bass. Odd-Roar had a home studio full of guitars, keyboards, a Moog, and a Korg organ. Rounding them out, friend and fellow musician Anton Larsen joined Kornmo on drums, as well as having the technical and digital know how to operate the home studio, producing and mixing the album. The result is simply amazing, interweaving folk music themes, melodic symphonic rock, and 70s prog rock into their sonic tapestry of the end of days. These guys know what they are doing. The standout track is the 19-minute “Dovre faller.” Dovre is a huge area in the central part of Norway and the constitutional fathers of 1814 swore allegiance to Dovre, not to the king or God, "until Dovre falls." This epic instrumental features emotional and melodic lead guitar that made me think of Proud Peasant’s “The Avatar” with the musicians building tension by continually raising the melody by a half-step. As the music approaches the climax a massive cathedral organ and Mellotron emerge and the whold piece shifts towards classical Italian prog rock much like Il Tempio delle Clessidre. I could go on, but suffice it to say, Fimbulvinter is an excellent album that is sure to please both old and new prog rock fans.

Filed under: New releases, 2021 releases

Related artist(s): Kornmo

More info
http://kornmo1.bandcamp.com/album/fimbulvinter

 

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