Norna / Legbiter – Split
Release Date: 20th March 2026
Label: Pelagic Records
Bandcamp
Genre: smörgåsbord, Post-Metal smörgåsbord, Sludge smörgåsbord, Noise smörgåsbord, Shoegaze smörgåsbord, smörgåsbord.
FFO: Cult of Luna, 1OO Year Old Man, Breach, The Old Wind & Smörgåsbords.
Review By: John Newlands
This Friday sees the release of a 10″ split EP from Legbiter and Norna, offering three tracks each and clocking in at just over 27 minutes. Each band takes up roughly half the runtime, with Legbiter opening the record and Norna closing out the back half.
Legbiter were completely new to me, but a little digging revealed they’ve been active in various forms since 2015, going through several line-up changes before settling into their current formation in Stockholm, Sweden. This geographic stability seems to have helped them overcome the usual logistical challenges faced by bands spread across different locations and get back to recording as well as live performance.
The EP opens with Worms, and immediately you’re pulled into big, sludgy, downtuned guitars and a gloriously rubbery bass tone that at times feels like the strings are wobbling on the verge of falling off the fretboard. Not in a sloppy way, but with a distinctive groove and swagger that the production captures beautifully. It draws you in fast.
Then the vocals arrive. Normally, with a sound this thick and grimy, you’d expect guttural growls or tortured screams layered on top of the riffs. Not here. Legbiter flip the standard narrative with surprisingly clean, catchy vocals carrying a fantastic melody. Between the hooky riffs and memorable vocal lines, I was sold almost instantly. Worms doesn’t radically reinvent the genre, but it feels fresh, confident, and distinct enough to get you excited for what follows.
Speedball comes next, leaning heavier with a more angular riff. It has a little less swagger and fewer melodic hooks than Worms, but it remains instantly recognisable as Legbiter, and it absolutely hits the mark. Track three, Major Motion, continues the trajectory of getting progressively heavier while maintaining the clean vocal approach, before collapsing into a wash of noise and feedback that closes the band’s side of the EP with a satisfying sense of destruction.
So, if Legbiter are the sword on this battlefield (fittingly, their name is the English translation of the sword of Norwegian Viking King Magnus III “Barefoot,” said to have earned its name from slicing through enemies’ legs), then Norna are the war hammer — massive, blunt, and absolutely devastating.
When I first heard about Norna around 2022, I was genuinely excited but also a bit nervous. The line-up features vocalist/guitarist Tomas Liljedahl (ex‑Breach, The Old Wind) alongside Swiss musicians Christophe Macquat (bass/guitar) and Marc Theurillat (drums/samples) from the instrumental band ØLTEN. I am a fan all their previous projects, but “supergroups” so often disappoint. I’m very happy to say that Norna are the exception. Every time they announce new material, I get genuinely excited to hear what they’re going to put out.
Their sound pulls elements from their past bands but blends them into something heavier, denser, and somehow more than the sum of the parts. The mix is dense, thick and oppressive – it feels like being smothered under a duvet in a sauna while some mad bastard beats you with a baseball bat as you struggle for air.
Just when you think the sound can’t get any more overwhelming, the screamed vocals tear through the mix, adding a new texture that somehow creates space instead of filling it. That dynamic tension is what defines Norna for me.
For newcomers, the hypnotic repetition, immense low end, and sheer density might feel overwhelming in the context of a full 40‑minute LP, so this 10″ split is the perfect introduction to their brand of sonic punishment. The tracks here are a little shorter than the usual Norna offerings and perhaps a little more direct & straight to business.
Norna’s tracks on the split sit very well together and don’t greatly deviate from their historical offerings, but that’s not to say they’re boring or lacking in execution. Lithany comes straight out of the gate with crushing guitars and pounding drums before settling into a hypnotic, sludgy, doomy groove. It’s a great track showcasing the band’s style of metal. Eyes of God again holds very much to Norna’s established style and presentation. It has a Cult of Luna edge to it — I’m thinking In Awe Of from Cult of Luna’s 2013 Vertikal album. It’s a nod in that direction but far from a rip‑off. Serpents of Gold is a straight‑up post‑metal banger with chugging guitars, pummelling bass, and effects‑strewn vocals that close out the EP.
Interestingly, Legbiter and Norna feel like two sides of the same coin. Legbiter bring openness and melody, while Norna offer density and abrasion. This may be down to the individual mixing and mastering of each half of the EP and in this case I lean slightly in favour of Legbiter’s side, but there’s a shared heaviness and emotional weight that makes the split feel cohesive and powerful.
Overall, this release works extremely well, not just as a showcase of two excellent bands but as a complementary pairing that highlights what makes each of them unique. I’ve found myself (something lighter?!?) after being completely choked out by Norna. In this case, Legbiter are the perfect remedy, offering three big gasps of sludgy, breathable air before being dragged back down into the Norna swamp.
(4.5 / 5)
