Ereb Altor

Knowing that Ereb Altor is the title of a campaign setting in Swedish role-playing game Drakar och Demoner (which translates to "Dragons and Demons") gives some useful context for the high-fantasy-themed Viking metal the titular band has produced. Ereb Altor's fourth full-length, Fire Meets Ice, is their grandest creation to date, and also their darkest. While they've always combined mid-paced power metal with doom and black metal, the weight and gravity of the songs are much deeper on this latest offering, cloaked in shadow and stinking of brimstone. The record plods forward at a monolithic, doom-esque pace, like a walking mountain. With eyes downcast and a mind full of necromantic rites, Fire Meets Ice takes the heroic chanting and battle-ready guitars of their early work and ices them over. However, in making their sound more ominous and twisted, they haven't sacrificed their original power metal core, which is on display on tracks like "The Deceiver Shall Repent," featuring a strong folk influence. For darker, more serious, but no less epic Viking metal, a more mature alternative to Ensiferum and something grimmer than Falconer, Ereb Altor have provided an excellent soundtrack to your more bloody-minded role-playing campaigns.