(IN STOCK MID-MAY)

This is not folk black metal as the world has known it, nor is it a simple modernization of ancient sounds. It is a force unto itself, reaching into the marrow of Nordic tradition and twisting it into something new, something untamed.

If darkness is the canvas upon which the boldest visions are painted, then Andvake—meaning "Awakened Soul" in Old Norse—marks Afargang’s arrival with a vivid and unrelenting creation. An album born from the restless churn of Nordic heritage, it pulses with the tension of contrasts: light against dark, the ancient against the new, the ethereal against the unyielding weight of distortion. This is more than an album—it is an invocation, a soundscape of melancholy, resilience, and reckoning.

At the heart of Afargang is Olav Luksengård Mjelva, the band’s architect and guiding force. A musician whose soul resonates with the echoes of Norway’s past, his mastery of folk music and particularly the Hardanger fiddle, injects a spectral quality into the band’s sonic framework. But Afargang is no exercise in nostalgia. Instead, it is a collision of forces—where the weight of tradition meets the unbridled power of black metal. Mjelva’s voice, raw and commanding, channels something ancient and untamed.

Black LP + innersleeve.
Norse Music 2025