For those of you unfamiliar with Dawn, they’re a band that, along with the previously mentioned bands, laid the foundations of melodic black metal. All of the things necessary to make a fantastic album are here: catchy, melodic tremolo riffs, relentless, charging drums, aggressive bass, and fantastic, shrieked vocals. Yes, it is uncommon to find a band this technically proficient on its first album, and even more uncommon to have all band members this good, but what makes Dawn and Nær Sólen Gar Niþer For Evogher so unforgettable is the song writing.

Each song on Nær Sólen Gar Niþer For Evogher takes a few riffs in that wonderful, Swedish style we know and love and blazes forth with all the glory and beauty that the album cover suggests. The chilling tremolo leads charge forward over Karsten Larsson’s drumming in instantly recognizable melodies and chord progressions. Though there’s an a emphasis on speed coming from the guitars, there are just a handful of blasting sections, with Larsson preferring to opt for a more varied and exciting approach with plenty of double bass. But when he does need to hammer out blast beats he does so with the best of them.

As mentioned before, the dueling guitar work from Andreas Fullmestad and Fredrik Söderberg is brilliant stuff. Twenty years is a long time when it comes to music and it’s fantastic to note that the riffs on Nær Sólen Gar Niþer For Evogher are as powerful and engaging as the day they were written. In the two decades since the release of the album many bands have tried to copy this style, and even though there’s an abundance of bands playing similar material, the riffs here are as fresh as they come, and stand as a testament to the band’s quality. Due in part to the lack of blast beats on the album, Lars Tängmark’s bass playing can actually be heard on most of the album. His work on “The Ethereal Forest,” for example, is awesome stuff, and the break halfway through the song where it’s just bass over drums is simply fantastic. Henke Forss’s shrieks on the album do an exceptional job and help to prevent the album from getting too happy and really flesh out the album’s atmosphere. Truth be told, I can’t think of a single criticism of Nær Sólen Gar Niþer For Evogher. Not even the whole
 
“It’s too short” complaint. The album’s fifty minute run time is perfect, and at the end you feel neither exhausted nor unfulfilled. Nær Sólen Gar Niþer For Evogher may not have the reputation of Dawn’s second and final album, Slaughtersun (Crown of the Triarchy), but it’s an amazing piece of music on its own. If you’re like me and have had to make due with a download of the album due to the wallet- hurting price it commands, this is the perfect time to get your hands on a copy. Or if you’re a newcomer to black metal and haven’t heard of Dawn before, there’s no time like the present. It’s a must-own for every fan of black metal and a timeless classic.