It’s easy to think that Iceland, with its wide, harsh landscapes, would give rise to a certain sound, that you can draw parallels between music and the environment it arises from. And a record like The Mountains Are Beautiful Now gives you reasons to do so. The debut of Elvar Geir Sævarsson’s alias GlerAkur was written as a soundtrack for a play about Icelandic outlaws, Fjalla-Eyvindur & Halla. Now, his multi-layered, atmospheric and spacious soundscapes are the perfect soundtrack to evoke images of glaciers and snow-clad sceneries. But while the first two songs feature impressive build-ups, beautiful ambient vibes and sludgy heaviness, the middle part sounds like one gigantic interlude and reminds you that these songs weren’t created to stand alone but to accompany a play. It takes the closing SOFTWAREmark” gingersoftwareuiphraseguid=“833cbd2c-c407-45b6-9ee0-1a481216916a” id=“a5040dd0-22f6-4667-b841-91f431ec8519”>Fagurt Er Á Fjöllunum Núna to bring The Mountains… anywhere near the level of intensity and tension that it displayed in the beginning. But who has the patience to wait that long?
GlerAkur - The Mountains Are Beautiful Now album review
Icelandic soundtracks with little to write home about
You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.
More about metal hammer
“The world had gone mad. The PMRC were trying to use all these great songs for their own agenda, which in the long run counted for nothing”: The story of Judas Priest’s Defenders Of The Faith, the album that Tipper Gore couldn’t silence
Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante says Metallica were right about Napster and that Spotify is where "music goes to die"
