It took a long time…four years to be exact. Already announced for release in Summer 2002 and postponed a few times, now Sweden´s NAGLFAR finally release their third album "Sheol" upon mankind.

"Diabolical", NAGLFAR´s second output, had been released back in 1998 and was as well received as the band´s debut album of 1995, "Vittra", a work that is still today (nearly eight years after its release) a milestone in Swedish melodic Black Metal.

Both "Vittra" and "Diabolical" helped NAGLFAR to get an excellent reputation in the worldwide Metal scene and filled fans of pure Black Metal noise as well as Death Metal maniacs and friends of more traditional Metal sounds with overwhelming enthusiasm.

After the release of "Diabolical" it became quiet around the NAGLFAR camp for a long time. Aside from a tour with Deicide, Six Feet Under and Amon Amarth in 1998, as well as some weekend tours (e.g. in Holland together with Soilwork and Darkane) and some single shows nothing major happened within NAGLFAR for the next few years.

In 2000 long-standing guitar player Morgan Hansson decided to call it a day and the vacant position was reoccupied by Marcus V. Norman (e.g. Bewitched).

In 2001 the first sign of re-animation was given with NAGLFAR´s highly acclaimed appearances on Wacken Open Air and Party-San Open Air followed with the release of the mini album "Ex Inferis" in August of 2002. This mini-album already gave an idea of what was to come with the new full-length studio album.

Now "Sheol", which is Hebrew and means nothing less than "Hell" itself, will hit the streets on March 24th, 2003 with a record the band hopes is rewarding for the extreme patience and loyalty of all their fans. The songs of "Sheol" don´t simply contain expertly-combined ingredients, but rather manages to bundle their stylistic varieties, to compress them, to purify them, so that "Sheol" seems a vast monument upon first listen.

But if the listener dares to dive deeper into the various levels of the nine songs (each one its own level of torment as described by Dante), they will discover fine adornments within each of them, the likes of which are normally scarce within Black Metal. Lots of today´s Black Metal bands define themselves through the creation of icy atmosphere, pure raving vitriol and monotony, but NAGLFAR go one step further and inject - besides traditional influences - some elements into their music that are pretty rare in this genre: magnificent melodies, interesting and varied rhythm work as well as variable, multi-faceted vocals.

All these trademarks shape "Sheol" into musical work of art, one high above the mean average, improved by stunning artwork from Dark Tranquillity´s Niklas Sundin (In Flames, Arch Enemy and many more) and endued with a razor-sharp, transparent and powerful sound in the Ballerina Studios in NAGLFAR´s hometown of Umeå.

So people, if you can´t stand listening to the millionth dull Black Metal band ruin the genre´s once boundless hopes, then you definitely should go and get "Sheol". Even if the listener normally prefers to get a new album by their favourite bands more often than once every four years, one cannot deny that NAGLFAR have managed to spawn their most diabolic, most sinister, most elaborate and most brilliant work in the band´s history. And for such a work of Metal it should be worth waiting for…with "Sheol", NAGLFAR invite you to hell. We recommend you accept the invitation.

Biography taken from the Official website.