Alt Som Finnes Review: Bizarrekult Turns Black Metal Into a Stress Test

Alt Som Finnes is Bizarrekult’s third album, and it’s less “songs” than controlled collapses—Norwegian black metal with post-metal nerve and zero chill.

The trick: it sounds traditional… until it doesn’t

Bizarrekult has been around in some form since 2006, but the 2020s are where this project starts acting like it actually plans to leave a mark. And yeah, it still reads like black metal at first glance—cold glare, fast hands, the usual frostbitten wardrobe—but Alt Som Finnes doesn’t just play Norwegian black metal. It keeps yanking the genre’s collar, like it’s annoyed the rules are still being followed.

This is a one-person machine run by Roman V., and the arc is obvious if you’ve lived with it: Vi overlevde (2021) felt like the opening statement; Den tapte krigen (2023) sounded like the moment the walls got knocked down. Alt Som Finnes arrives with that same momentum, but it doesn’t coast on “bigger and louder.” It gets craftier. Sometimes sneakily so.

“Hun” is not an intro track, it’s a thrown punch

The album kicks off with “Hun”, and it’s short—around three minutes—but it doesn’t behave like a polite scene-setter. I honestly expected the usual ceremonial fog: a mood piece, a doorway, something you forget once track two hits. But “Hun” comes out swinging immediately, like the album’s offended you’d assume it needed a warm-up.

Blastbeats snap the track awake, riffs scrape and bite, and the whole thing catches fire fast. The tone is important here: this isn’t “epic.” It’s urgent, like the record is trying to torch the room before anyone can get comfortable.

That choice matters, because it sets up what this album keeps doing: moving first, explaining later.

The album’s real habit: it keeps flipping the lighting mid-scene

Here’s where Alt Som Finnes starts showing its main obsession—contrast that doesn’t ask permission. The way it shifts mood isn’t subtle. It’s not the gentle “post-” drift where everything slowly turns gray. It’s more like someone keeps opening doors into different weather.

“Blikket Hennes” is the first big example. It follows “Hun” and initially leans into frenzy—blastbeats and a dissonant, looming atmosphere that feels purposely unstable. And then it pivots. Harmonious leads show up, and the vocals lift in a way that almost feels illegal for a genre that loves suffering as an aesthetic.

Guest vocalist Yusaf ‘Vicotnik’ Parvez (DØDHEIMSGARD) helps sell that flip. The soaring quality isn’t there to make the track “pretty.” It’s there to make the ugliness around it feel sharper by comparison. If anything, it reminds me of how modern Enslaved can take something harsh and suddenly tilt it into something strangely grand—without losing the teeth.

And to be clear: a reasonable listener could hear that and say it’s overreaching. I didn’t. I heard a band (project, technically) deciding that black metal doesn’t get to be one-dimensional anymore.

“Avmakt” proves the riffs aren’t the point—the ending is

This record’s switching dynamics isn’t a one-off trick. It’s baked into the runtime. And I’d argue that’s the album’s real strength: it’s engineered to keep re-contextualizing itself.

“Avmakt” is a good example because the riffing is undeniably strong—sharp, memorable, and paired perfectly with percussion that hits with actual intent instead of generic blasting. But the part that sticks with me isn’t the early muscle. It’s the closing stretch, where the song turns into an aural pile-up—layer upon layer, like it’s trying to drown the listener in its own momentum.

What surprised me is how cleanly it lands. That kind of ending can easily turn to mush. Here, it feels designed—like Roman V. knows exactly how much chaos still reads as structure.

If you want an arguable take: “Avmakt” isn’t impressive because it’s heavy; it’s impressive because it’s controlled. Some people will hear that control as polish. I hear it as discipline.

The emotional bait: “Håp” doesn’t soften the album, it sharpens it

After enough fire, the record finally shows its reflective side with “Håp.” This is where the melancholic element stops being subtext and turns into the main instrument.

It’s not “calm” in a comforting way. It’s calm like ice—beautiful, yes, but also the kind of surface you don’t trust. The melodies shimmer, and everything feels like it could crack if the song pushes too hard.

And that’s why it works: it doesn’t relieve tension; it changes its shape. A lot of heavy records use quieter tracks as a breather. “Håp” feels more like a quiet threat—like the album is reminding you it can hurt you without raising its voice.

I will admit, though: I’m not totally sure whether the track is meant to feel hopeful or if it’s deliberately sabotaging that word. The title suggests one thing; the mood suggests something more complicated.

The black-metal core still bites—and it bites through guest vocals

Just because the album likes atmosphere and post-metal flourishes doesn’t mean it forgets where it came from. Alt Som Finnes still keeps that Norwegian black metal spine—cold, direct, and unromantic.

Two tracks underline that in different ways:

• “Drøm” hits with genuinely venomous vocal energy, helped by guest vocalist Lina (Predatory Void / Cross Bringer). Her delivery doesn’t “decorate” the song. It weaponizes it. The track feels like it’s spitting rather than singing, and that nastiness keeps the album from drifting too far into pretty abstraction.
• “Aversjon” goes the other direction—somber, reflective, almost swooning in its sadness. The vocals sound pained, and the drums roll underneath like a steady, unavoidable thought you can’t stop thinking.

And here’s my slightly provocative claim for this section: the album’s best black metal moments aren’t the fastest ones—they’re the ones that sound wounded. Speed is easy. Conviction isn’t.

“Tomhet” in English: jaw-dropping, but also a little risky

The closer, “Tomhet,” is the big swing. It’s also the first time Bizarrekult has used English lyrics, and the change matters—not because English is “worse” (it isn’t), but because it changes how intimacy works. Norwegian can feel like texture to some listeners; English can feel like confrontation.

Musically, though, “Tomhet” is the album in peak form: the dynamics twist and surge, moving between thunderous blackened bite and genuinely gorgeous instrumentation. The extra firepower from Kim Song Sternkopf (MØL) adds weight right where it counts—reinforcing the heavy sections without flattening the track into a generic “feat. vocalist” moment.

Now for the mild criticism I can’t quite ignore: the English-vocal pivot slightly pulled me out on first listen, just because it’s such a deliberate flag-plant at the end of an album that’s otherwise been speaking its own language—literally and stylistically. On second listen, I stopped caring, mostly because the track earns its space. Still, it’s a choice that dares you to notice it.

If you’re the kind of listener who hates noticeable choices, you might call this self-conscious. I’d call it bold bordering on arrogant. And yeah—sometimes that’s exactly what black metal needs.

This album’s real message: momentum is a weapon

By the time the record ends, the main takeaway isn’t “great riffs” or “nice atmosphere.” It’s that Alt Som Finnes is built like a machine for forward motion. It keeps unfolding, re-framing, and escalating—not always by going louder, but by getting more emotionally complicated.

It also feels like a statement within Norwegian black metal’s ongoing timeline. With veterans like Mayhem still keeping the past loud and alive (their Liturgy Of Death is the obvious recent reminder), Bizarrekult doesn’t try to out-legend the legends. Instead, it argues—pretty convincingly—that the future isn’t about rewriting the old rules. It’s about making the rules feel too small.

And that’s where this album really lands: it doesn’t sound like it wants approval. It sounds like it expects you to keep up.

Release note (because it matters)

Alt Som Finnes is out now via Season of Mist: Underground Activists. That label tag fits: this album doesn’t sound “marketed.” It sounds committed.

Conclusion

Alt Som Finnes doesn’t just blend traditional Norwegian black metal with post-metal texture—it uses that blend to mess with your expectations track by track. It opens like a blaze, keeps swapping emotional masks, and closes by grabbing you in English and refusing to let go.

Our verdict: People who like black metal that moves—dynamics, melody, dissonance, the whole restless spiral—will love this. If you want raw minimalism, one mood for 45 minutes, and nothing that sounds even slightly “crafted,” this album will annoy you like a well-dressed person at a mud fight.

FAQ

• Is Alt Som Finnes traditional Norwegian black metal?
  It’s rooted there—blastbeats, blackened riffing, that cold emotional posture—but it keeps pulling in post-metal movement and broader melodic arcs.
• Who is behind Bizarrekult?
  It’s helmed by a single mastermind, Roman V., and it plays like one person with a specific vision rather than a committee of ideas.
• Which tracks show the album’s dynamic shifts best?
  “Blikket Hennes” and “Avmakt” make the contrast obvious: chaos to harmony, pressure to release, then back again.
• What’s special about “Tomhet”?
  It’s the closer, it hits hard, and it’s the first Bizarrekult song sung in English—plus it features Kim Song Sternkopf (MØL) adding extra force.
• Are the guest vocals essential or just decoration?
  They matter. Vicotnik helps “Blikket Hennes” pivot into something soaring, and Lina makes “Drøm” feel genuinely venomous instead of theatrically harsh.

If this album’s mood got under your skin, it’s the kind of thing that belongs on a wall too—album art as a daily reminder of tasteful discomfort. You can grab a favorite album cover poster at our store: https://www.architeg-prints.com/