Årabrot are one of those bands like the Melvins, who peddle adventurous, forward-thinking music that insistently pokes at the edges of the envelope, all to a relatively small cult following that's woefully incommensurate with their talent… yet another example of why the world is fucked.
The Melvins comparison is not an accidental one: the very first track off of Årabrot, "Ha-Satan Dêofol", paints a pretty clear picture of the Washingtonians as chief influence, the militaristic riff and juggernaut beat strongly nodding at that group's latter day "big band" sound. The hushed vocals and sinister coos further the homage.
K:N (a.k.a. Kjetil Nernes) also employs King Buzzo's trademark glide from lumbering grunts to sing-song, nursery rhyme derangement on "Throwing Rocks at the Devil", although by "Blood on the Poet" you find yourself noting that he sounds like Clutch's Neil Fallon just as much as he does Buzzo, often at the exact same time. This extends to the music as well, where "Drawing Down the Moon" can sound just as much like a High on Fire tribute as a Melvins cop, depending entirely on what angle it's approached from.
It proves that, while Nernes is certainly indebted to his influences, he's hardly shackled by them. Case in point: for last year's Mæsscr EP, Årabrot recorded covers of Death in June and Lee Hazelwood, neither of which bear any overt mark on the band's sound. And it's commendable that all three songs (Death in June get covered twice) are rendered with sincere appreciation and do not in any way come off as farce.
So while everything from Årabrot's album covers (above) to song titles ("Madonna Was a Whore", "The Most Sophisticated Form of Revenge") present the group as agitpop instigators – it doesn't help that their chosen musical identity can be loosely described as noise rock, a genre known for stirring the pot – what we actually have here is a band that get too little credit for being true rock & roll synthesists… in the same way that Melvins aren't really grunge (or Swans aren't actually industrial) but both bands flirt closely enough that they appeal to fans of those respective genres, Årabrot are fully worthy of crossing over to metal fans, not to mention just being taken seriously as talented artists in a general sense.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC7qOj2MqN4[/youtube]
