Published: September 12, 2012

Hypnotic Dirge Productions seems to continually release high-quality albums from a variety of different artists. Many of the albums they release are by bands a little more, shall we say eclectic, with artists who like to experiment and push the boundaries of their respective genres.

Netra's Sørbyen is however, by far the strangest release that I have heard from HDR yet. The album melds black metal with genres such as jazz, trip hop and at times even dance-like music! Sound weird? Well, it is, but the oddest part is that the album works really well when it really shouldn't. I don't think I would ever have thought I would like a release like this, but for some reason I really do!

Sørbyen needs to be checked out by anyone curious about how to do something truly different in the metal arena without coming across as ironic or tongue-in-cheek. Top songs include "Crawling" and "I Shall Slay the Monkeys".