Review: Golden Core ‘Fimbultýr’

This Norwegian duo are the definition of potential, with a 15 year old and a 17 year old powering this righteous noise meaning that they could have decades of material to come. What might bother me is the ‘progressive’ tagged onto their style, as that is normally added to anything that is even remotely long without actually featuring any prog elements. Golden Core‘s debut came out in 2016, and Fimbultýr is a record that belies their maturity with a staggering amount of talent.

Golden Core ‘Fimbultýr’

The opening drive of the title track is magnificent, with thunderous doomy riffs propelled with a fuzzy bass line and pounding drums. Imagine Kyuss if they lived in the savage north rather than sun baked desert. The raspy throaty vocals give an extra oomph to proceedings as well, but it isn’t all just driving, bluesy stoner metal.

It just SOUNDS so authentic, from the guitar tone and impressive licks, to the bass and drum thunder below…

The triumphant heft of Rúnatal builds with tribal drumming and shimmering guitars into a lumbering, Cathedral-esque monster. Weird vocal effects cascade over massive cliffs of doom riffs, and this is the kind of prog I want in things labelled as progressive, not just long songs. Hrafnaspá is my favourite track here though, a rough and ready, punkish Queens Of The Stone Age banger that is one of the more overtly ‘RAWK’ moments here, while the short and almost black metal Villist Vættir is a nice surprise.

Golden Core‘s songwriting skills are top notch, and if I hadn’t read in their press release that they were so young, you could’ve convinced me they’d been doing this for decades. It just SOUNDS so authentic, from the guitar tone and impressive licks, to the bass and drum thunder below. There is no more pleasant a surprise in finding a band that totally gets the style they are playing and get it at such a young age. I mean, turn up the powerful, folk tinged Buslubæn and just bathe yourself in its glacial awesomeness. Golden Core are a superb band, and Fimbultýr is hopefully just the beginning.

Label: Fysisk Format
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram

Scribed by: Sandy Williamson