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I found Folk Metal band Vintersorg's 2011 album, Jordpuls, too heavy on the Folk and too light on the Metal. It is a fine, melodic album, but not very powerful. 2012's Orkan changes that in a big way. There's still plenty of melody and keyboards masquerading as folk instrumentation. This time around, however, Metal gets a much-needed boost so Orkan roars where Jordpuls purred.

Take "Havets Nåd," for example. The song launches out of the gate with double-kick drums, a sharp riff and raspy Black vocals before settling in with some keyboard melodies and clean singing. It goes back and forth between the two extremes a couple more times over the course of 6+ minutes and is a perfect representation of the improved songwriting that characterizes Orkan. The whole album is solid from start to finish. Orkan is a huge improvement over Jordpuls, making Vintersorg relevant again for the discerning Folk Metal fan.