Kampfar presents the fiercest and most intense recording of their career. Since its first conception in 1994 with folk and classical music influences, via the colder winds on Kvass, the band has kept on renewing, and elevated into the black metal authority that reaches its peak on Profan. Songs like Pole In The Ground and Profanum hearken back to the vibes of the early 90s black metal while keeping the edge of 2015 Kampfar, while slow burners like Daimon and epic album closer Tornekratt shows that Kampfar can go deep down and still deliver such intensity that few in the world of metal can match.
2011's Mare represented a journey into the world of witches of the past and the present, and was followed in 2014 by Djevelmakt and its conceptual journey into the underworld with rats, black souls and false choirs. New album Profan now finishes the thought process by digging so deep that there is nothing more there. There is only more digging to be done, and it is all fruitless. There is no more hope beyond the night terrors, no company beyond the snakes, nothing to be found but suffocating emptiness.
The new album is the result of a creative wave that really took on gigantic proportions after the release of Djevelmakt in early 2014. Again, written partially in Bergen where half the band is located, and in the band's spiritual home in Hemsedal, the writing process was yet again highly gratifying. Jonas Kjellgren of world renowned Abyss/Blacklodge Studios was also involved again, as the drums on this album have the distinction and honor of being the last recording ever to be recorded through the mixing desk that has been the catalyst for so many legendary albums since the mid-90s. Vocals were recorded in Oslo's Waterfall studio with the aid of Stamos Koliousis, while all remaining recordings were handled by the bands own Ole Hartvigsen, who also held the production reins. The mix was done by Jonas Kjellgren, seeing as he had grown to understand the bands sound as well as they themselves did, and the result is a giant of an album.
Visually the band has chosen to go back and acquire several paintings by Polish master Zdzis?aw Beksinski.