The pummelling, riff-driven spirits of earlier metal titans like Black Sabbath and Manowar inform this powerful trio from Stockholm, Sweden. Weaving pagan imagery into their brand of metal, singer/guitarist JB Christoffersson relates stories of Nordic warriors sailing icy seas to engage in earth-shaking swordplay on unforgiving tundra. Melodic riffs and a relentless midtempo churn generate stately doom-laden gravitas perhaps most memorably captured on the threesome's 2010 breakthrough album, Hammer of the North.