Iceland seems like an appropriate place for black metal as a dark and barren tundra. As you would have it, one of the best black metal albums of the year has come from the island.

Yes the country is now more well known for its football chants, corrupt politicians and holiday-ruining volcanoes, but for such a small population, there is quite the music scene breeding in Iceland, and Zhrine sits at the helm of that with their impressive debut ‘Unortheta‘.

While black metal often sits sort of ‘same-same’ on a personal level, the quartet really managed to make a mark with this one. It’s eerie and skin-itching, and enough atmosphere to really trigger visual metaphors of doom-sludgened wastelands as dark as the low notes of the cello go. Something like that certainly deserves to be on the shortlist for album of the year.