UMUR
"Red Planet" is the third full-length studio album by Norwegian stoner doom metal act Valhall. The album was released through Housecore Records in June 2009. It´s the successor to "Heading for Mars" from 1997. I´m not sure the band were split-up in the years between the two albums but they at least had a longer hiatus. Valhall formed in 1987 and originally featured Gylve Nagell (aka Fenriz from Darkthrone) on drums on their first two demos (and on some tracks on their third demo). Nagell left in 1990 and didn´t perform on Valhall´s two 90s studio albums, but he has returned to the fold and plays drums and performs vocals on "Red Planet". Lead vocals are still handled by Ronny Sorkness though.
While Valhall played a hybrid traditional doom metal and stoner doom metal style on their first two releases, they have completely shed the traditional doom metal elements from "Red Planet" which is a pure stoner doom metal release equally influenced by Black Sabbath and later contemporary psychedelic tinged stoner metal bands. With "Red Planet" I finally got what I was screaming for on the first two releases, which is a bottom heavy sound production, and although the drums feature a slightly powerless and dry tone, the heavy fuzzy guitar tone and organic bass make up for a lot of that. Even Sorkness who I have previously critisized for his non-distinct and sub par vocal performances has stepped up on "Red Planet". Don´t get me wrong the vocals are still the weak link of "Red Planet", like they were on the two preceding album releases, but here they are decent and tolerable.
The songwriting is solid but nothing out of the ordinary for the genre, and I can think of quite a few contemporary releases in the same genre which I would put on before this one. So, upon conclusion "Red Planet" is a decent quality comeback release from Valhall, but it´s probably more a hobby project for the members than a serious band as we haven´t heard from them since. I don´t know if that´s what keeps me a litte unconvinved of the overall quality of this release, but to my ears it´s simply a bit redundant. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.
