Why is everything in Iceland so massive and breath-taking? Volcanoes, hot springs, waterfalls – not to mention bands, like Sólstafir? The last two albums of the 20-year-or-so-old combo are something so huge that it's impossible to get enough of them. Just when you thought that absolutely nothing can rise above Svartir Sandar, the passionate epic released in 2011, the band puts out Ótta, possibly the best rock album of the year.
Sólstafir started with black metal, but with Ótta, the band sheds the rest of the limitations of metal. The songs are flowing, massive post rock combining despair and awe with catchiness and grand melodies. Although the notes are often long, the songs are never arty, and the crown of everything is the unimitable singing voice of Aðalbjörn “Addi” Tryggvason, full of gloom and doom.
Sólstafir has everything it takes to be massively successful. The last two albums have gained five-star reviews in all kinds of media, not just metal magazines. Sólstafir's music is loved by post-punks, art-rockers, metalheads and many others. How on earth can such a small country be the home to so many great bands?