“Köldens Union” from Sweden’s Istapp is basically a collection of their two demos along with a few new songs - something that I wasn’t aware of until after I obtained the album. Fortunately, this is not one of those albums where it’s obvious which tracks are the demo ones and which ones aren’t; instead “Köldens Union” is a very consistent and surprisingly good album of icy and melodic black metal.

Istapp play in a highly melodic yet fast and aggressive style with good production and some very well executed clean singing on some songs. The instrumentation and vocals are top notch, and the songwriting flows very well. Some of the riffs are rather reminiscent of melodic death metal bands like At The Gates or older Dark Tranquillity, while some of the clean vocal melodies show a definite folk influence. Istapp also uses some keyboards and samples sparingly but effectively in a few places.

“Köldens Union” starts off with the new songs, and then includes the band’s “Ljusets Förfall” and “Må Det Aldrig Töa” demos. The demo tracks don’t show any drop in quality from the new songs, and in fact it’s hard to notice any difference at all, except that maybe the new material is a bit more focused. The last track is a demo version of the title track ‘Köldens Union’ which doesn’t really sound too different, and since it’s one of the best songs on the album I certainly have no problems with listening to it again.

This album was definitely a pleasant surprise for me and is one of the better black metal albums I’ve heard recently. These guys have been around since 2005 but have only released the one album, unfortunately. I’ll be looking forward to hearing what Istapp puts out next.

» Buy “Köldens Union” from The End Records