Freja - Tides (2022)

This is the debut album from Freja, an atmospheric black metal band from the Netherlands.
Featuring a member of Laster, Tides contains 39 minutes of ethereal atmospheric black metal.
The music is layered with emotive melody and rich feeling. Post-metal resplendence can be heard embedded into the tracks in places, pulling the songs in a more contemporary direction, adding to the immersive qualities of the album. Vocally we get a mix of dark, harsh growls, daemonic shrieks, and epic clean singing, all buried in the mix so as to be used as just another musical tool.
The songs are crafted with an appreciation for deep atmosphere and a desire to portray this over and above any other consideration. The songwriting reflects this, with its emphasis on mood and feeling. There’s still an aggressive blackened aspect to the band’s work, but even this is pressed into the service of creating broad soundscapes of shimmering luminescence. The music flows across the album like a living entity, and the band do well to keep up the impactful emotive intensity across the playing time, despite the occasional softer moment of calm here and there.
Tides is an enjoyable piece of work. It’s raw and underground in nature, yet also brimming with passionate delivery. The songwriting is strong, and the album contains many strengths that draw the listener back to it time and time again.