Paradogmata |Necrosian Tastings |Hymns For The End Of Times Records

Paradogmata is a band from Trondheim, formed in 2018 as a melodic thrash outfit. Death metal, black metal and progressive touches crept in along the way. The 2025 arrival of guitarist Øystein Granamo Iversen and drummer Kim Sætre rebuilt the line up and widened the sound. Ingvild Sareeta Strønen Johannesen guests on Hardanger fiddle and violin for the folk versions.

"Necrosian Tastings" has four tracks over about seventeen minutes, five on the CD, and only two of them are new songs. The rest is "Kråkevisa", already out as a single, served here as a "Kneippversjon" and a "Folkesangversjon", plus the CD bonus "Kråkevisa (Bløtkakeversjon)". The full length "Necrosian Litanies" is due in early 2027. Ten minutes of fresh writing is thin, and a third take of one song is padding.

The new songs are good. "Leave The Crippled Behind" runs melodic thrash and death metal into a heavy doom section in the middle, then speeds off again. That brake is a gamble that works, because the return is better for it. "Maladieu" trades speed for a mid tempo pace and twin lead guitars, so the two new tracks cover different sides of the melodic spectrum. The lyrics go after mankind's selfishness and where it leads, and in the aftermath of Covid 19 they ask who or what the real plague is.

The target is as old as the genre and the plague question answers itself. The sarcasm saves the first song from sounding like a sermon. The two versions of "Kråkevisa" pull in opposite directions. The "Kneippversjon" drops the folk elements for a colder Norwegian black metal approach, and the "Folkesangversjon" puts Hardanger fiddle, violin and Sareeta's folk vocals up front.

The EP runs from its rawest cut to its quietest and closes on fiddle. Thrash, death, doom, black metal and folk in under twenty minutes is a wide spread, and the two new tracks sit closer to each other than to either end of the sequence. Two good songs and a tracklist stretched to hide it. That is enough to make the full length one to wait for, and not enough new music to call this a release in its own right.

|7.5