Release Date March 20th, 2026
Format Digital/Vinyl/CD
Genre Extreme/Death Metal
Origin Norway
Deathseeker operated mainly during 2015 and 2016, a brief existence built around Shall and Zorn. Shall handled all instruments and wrote the music, while Zorn supplied the vocals and lyrics. Their background reached through Algol, Buttocks, Decay Lust, Infanticide, The Helheim Society, Vendetta Blitz, Shadow Dancers, and Black Sun Brotherhood, placing Deathseeker deep inside the Norwegian underground, far from its more public names. The duo lineup gave the band a narrow musical shape, with Shall controlling the riffs, drums, bass, and overall construction, then Zorn adding a coarse vocal layer over the top. The approach mixed blackened extremity with death metal bluntness, using compact riff cycles, rasped vocals, and a stripped attack. There was no long discography or extended evolution to trace. Deathseeker appeared, created a small body of work, and disappeared after a short period, leaving these 2015 sessions as the main document of the band’s existence.
Tyr existed from 1991 until 1997 and rose from the remains of Infanticide, belonging to an earlier stage of Norway’s extreme metal underground. Knauzër played guitars, Lieber handled drums and vocals, and Zorn played bass and added vocals. The members were also linked to Semion, Kvazar, The Helheim Society, Vendetta Blitz, Shadow Dancers, and Black Sun Brotherhood. Compared with Deathseeker’s short mid 2010s activity, Tyr came from the tape trading era, when local bands developed through rehearsal spaces, demos, photocopied contacts, and small circles far from professional exposure. The trio format produced a rougher interaction between guitar, rhythm section, and two vocal sources. Their 1997 material reflects that period through primitive riff construction, loose rhythmic movement, and vocals rooted in death metal and black metal traditions. Tyr ended in the same year these sessions were made, which turns this half of the split into a preserved final chapter from a band tied closely to its local scene and its time.
"Sons Of Thunder" joins Deathseeker material tracked in 2015 at Necro Sanctum Studio in Sarpsborg with Tyr sessions made at Fluid Studio in Fredrikstad during May 1997. Shall produced, mixed, and engineered the Deathseeker side, while Patrick Moe handled those duties for Tyr. Ketil “Kællen” Johansen remixed both sets at Kællen Studio in Fredrikstad during October 2025. Across roughly forty minutes, the split presents two related versions of Norwegian extreme metal separated by almost two decades. Deathseeker uses shorter phrases, compressed riffing, and a colder blackened surface. Tyr comes across looser and more rooted in early death metal, with drums and guitars retaining the rough character of an older underground session.
The remix brings the volume and frequency range closer together without erasing the age of either source. Guitars remain coarse, drums stay dry, bass lines sit low in the mix, and the vocals stand forward enough to dominate without burying the riff patterns. The production has limited depth and the cymbals can turn brittle when the tempo rises, though the overall balance remains readable. The language is direct and severe, matching music based on short forms and blunt impact.
Taken as one continuous descent, the split shows a real connection between the bands without making them interchangeable. Deathseeker brings the more immediate attack; Tyr brings older rhythmic looseness and a darker death metal pulse. Several riffs pass quickly and leave a limited mark, and the similar pacing can flatten the middle stretch. The closing impression remains firm: raw Norwegian underground metal presented with enough sonic correction to join two eras, while preserving the rough character that gave these sessions their reason to exist. It is a good split with historical value, a few gripping passages, and enough variation between the two halves to hold interest, even when the songwriting falls into plain, expected patterns.
|7.5
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