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Kvöl (Icelandic for "agony") are an Atmospheric Black Metal duo from the U.S. following in the footsteps of the mighty Summoning with dreamy synths overlaid on top of freezing guitar work and nasty shrieks. This one stands out a bit more by having a riff sensibility closer to second wave acts like Darkthrone and generally being a bit more guitar centric than average, along with having a less friendly melodic sensibility than a lot of their peers and even sporting some haunting female vocals on the massive album highlight, "Ageless War." This is all brought down a bit by the vocals being rather one-dimensional and the guitar tone sounding a little too artificial for my liking, sometimes sounding closer to a synthesizer than anything. Still, the songwriting and mood overall are fairly solid and encompassing, and tracks like "The Looming Black" and the aforementioned "Ageless War" do a good job of evoking works like Minas Morgul without sounding like a direct imitation, which is more than can be said for plenty of bands in this vein. Worthy.