Netra originally hailed from Kemper, France, and from that base of operations released a pair of demos that caught Nick Skog’s attention. Skog contacted Netra and released the debut album, Mélancolie Urbaine in late 2010 on his label Hypnotic Dirge Records. Since then, Netra has moved from France to Norway, and in mid-2012 the follow-up to Mélancolie Urbaine was released, Sørbyen.

Once again the beautiful structures of jazz and trip-hop that Netra creates are blended with intensely thought out black metal; genres that (until Mélancolie Urbaine was released) I never thought would exist together. There is a depressing quality to the music, sadness and a longing for something better, and it is portrayed through genuinely soul-filled instrumentation and vocals that feel like they belong to the music, and are born from it.

With Sørbyen there is less black metal than the previous album, but truthfully it is not missed at all, as the trip-hop, house elements, and just plain rock make up for any lack of metallic headbanging. This ensures that when the black metal hits, it hits hard.