Artist: Lokabrenna
Country: Iceland
Label: Sect Entropy
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2026
After the release of ‘Flesh Cathedral’ in 2012, a real underground hype arose around Svartidauði, which marked the start of the Icelandic Black Metal “boom” and the hipsster parade around the Terratur Possessions label. Although I never found the band particularly special and will forever prefer Sinmara’s debut album, Svartidauði’s influence on the Black Metal of the years that followed is undeniable. Svartidauði had been around for ten years when the debut album was released and continued for another ten years, during which three EPs and a second album saw the light of day. Then the curtain fell for this influential band.
It is not difficult to imagine that the Icelandic Black Metal scene is not very large and that people quickly become dependent on each other when it comes to forming new bands. Even before Svartidauði threw in the towel, there was already plenty of incestuous behaviour and interbreeding going on. For Svartidauði singer/bassist Sturla Viðar, however, things had been a little quiet for a while, although he was briefly active in the short-lived Sól án Varma project. But now he is really making himself heard for the first time through Lokabrenna, his recently created solo project.
Although I never fully jumped on the Svartidauði bandwagon, there’s no denying that this band had something special to offer and that the individual band members were absolute masters of their craft. Due to the complex structures and rather inaccessible first impression of Svartidauði, and Icelandic Black Metal in general, it has always surprised me that it appealed to such a large audience. Lokabrenna largely follows that path of inextricable complexity that Viðar paved with Svartidauði, but seems to have wanted to amplify a number of elements while simultaneously taking a different approach to a number of other things. After listening to ‘Acephalic Apocrypha’ quite a few times, I think that Lokabrenna can certainly be seen as the spiritual successor to Svartidauði in some respects, but that it can easily stand on its own two feet.
Musically, it’s not far removed from what you’d expect from Icelandic Black Metal, it’s brimming with dissonant riffs and structured chaos. Again, this is not easy-listening, disposable Black Metal for the Tiktok-generation. Listening to this almost 30-minute demo a few times is definitely mandatory, if not to fully understand its complexity, then at least to find all the details hidden under the surface. Musically, this can best be described as a mix of Ondskapt, Deathspell Omega, and especially the later work of Mayhem. It guarantees a maelstrom of rebellious riffs and a suffocating atmosphere. The slightly thicker Death Metal vibe à la Teitanblood that sometimes surfaced in Svartidauði is largely absent here. Instead, the emphasis is entirely on those swirls of chaotic riffs and bleak melodies.
Lokabrenna first made itself known with a digital single in September last year, which now returns as the opener on ‘Acephalic Apocrypha’, but it’s quite possible that many people completely overlooked it. It speaks in his favor that no big fuss was made about this being Sturla Viðar’s new project and he seems to intend to accomplish this on his own account. Judging by the musical quality of this first demo, he should certainly succeed in doing so. Whether this will generate a similar rush of attention remains to be seen, but for me personally, this is much more interesting than anything Viðar has released before.
