Hailing from Northern Germany, NASTRANDIR is right now being promoted as the next up-and-coming Pagan/Viking outfit that wants to impress the listener with “true Nordic heathen hymns”. Well, after the genre typical intro the first track Die letzte Schlacht is not outstanding, but quite ok. But, I’m sorry for that, I have to say that this first song is the only highlight on Zwischen Horizonten. Tolerable choirs, traditional riffing and keyboards as well as a violin. Nothing more to offer. Right from the end of that track on, NASTRANDIR worsen themselves with every following song. It seems, as if there were simply no more ideas left for the next songs. What follows for about 35 minutes sounds like as if someone had mixed up any Pagan or Viking cliché one could find with several copies of Eisregen-tracks like Salz der Erde or Dreizehn. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the bass guitar comes up with some country music like tunes here and there, and, above all, covering everything with hardly ever varying melodies, we got an omnipresent fiddle. Especially that violin strained my nerves, giving me the feeling (although there is some variation in the song structures) to listen to only one song in several slightly different versions, added with by differing (and quite simple) rhymes as the most significant distinction.
Sorry for that guys, but I have listened to way better and much more self-reliant stuff from the genre. Maybe the material might have been sufficient for a demo CD, but I expected more from a band that already has a contract and is advertised in such a way.