Ildjarn- Norse (1993)

While Ildjarn’s self-titled demo is where the band’s sound really begins to take form, his debut EP, a collaboration with Nidhogg, is where the sound is truly mastered. Norse is twelve minutes of fast-paced, hypnotizing black metal. In comparison to the prior release, the songs are condensed and the harmonies are upgraded. The result is one of Ildjarn’s best recordings.

Norse sets the standard for the rest of Ildjarn’s black metal releases. The songs are all composed of the same small set of elements: buzz saw power chords, taut bass, and imperiously precise and repetitive percussion. In contrast to most Ildjarn albums, where the drums are real, Norse employs a drum machine. Ostensibly, it makes no difference, since Ildjarn's drumming style is very mechanical to begin with. The elements come together to create a sound that has the directness of punk and the catchiness of techno, but an aesthetic that is undeniably black metal. These songs capture a primordial violence; the vicious fervor of the hunter for the hunted.

The production is raw, but not quite as raw as Ildjarn and Forest Poetry. As a result, the riffs are easier to grasp and stick quicker. That’s good news, because there are some really great riffs on this recording. “Morklagt Sti” seamlessly shifts back and forth between a deep and groovy verse and a bouncy chorus. There’s just enough variation between the two passages to pull the listener up and down, but the overall uniformity is totally hypnotizing. “Svarte Hjerter” is a bleaker track that creates a foreboding atmosphere. “Nattens Ledestjerne” is a solid but unspectacular song; pretty typical song from this era of Ildjarn. “Natt Og Tåke” is a phenomenal piece with an undecipherable but nonetheless obsessively good chant along chorus. The song-lengths are perfect: just long enough to lock their hooks sink into your head, but not so long as to become redundant. 

Norse is the perfect introduction to Ildjarn. Because the production is less abrasive and the album avoids the Tolstoyian length of Ildjarn and Strength and Anger, a newcomer will be less distracted by Ildjarn’s frills and can focus on the music itself. Many will be surprised by how effective this simple style of black metal can be (and those who don’t like it won’t have to waste their time sitting through an 80 minute album). Fans who have overlooked this EP should remedy that immediately as this is one of Ildjarn’s most engaging and effective records. 

Overall: 9/10

Ildjarn- Ildjarn demo (1993)

 

Ildjarn’s 1993 self-titled demo is where the one man band’s signature sound begins to take shape. After releasing a pair of demos consisting of bulky and plodding mid-tempo cuts of bloated black metal, Ildjarn made some major amendments to his sound. Ildjarn kicks the music up a notch, playing meaner, harsher riffs at faster tempos (though this demo is still a step slower than the pace found on most the tracks of Ildjarn’s full-lengths). The taut bass provides a stellar compliment of counterpoints to the main riff. The drums are efficient and as precise as a metronome, but not quite as monochromatic as some other Ildjarn recordings.

Ihsahn of Emperor fame provides the session vocals.  While his vocal performances on the early Emperor recordings (especially Wrath of the Tyrant) can be quite obnoxious, here he gives a solid if unspectacular performance. His voice is a little more spooky and serpentine than Ildjarn’s harsh and direct growls. While Ildjarn’s vocals would have served just fine here, Ihsahn’s performance in no way detracts from the recording. If nothing else, it provides the self-titled demo with a novel dimension. 

 

At its best, the demo provides riffs that grab the listener by the throat and refuse to let go. “Ild” has a great central riff that revels in predatory fervor. “Støv Og Aske” has an entrapping hypnotic riff that foreshadows the entrancing melodies of Strength and Anger. Sometimes, the songs can drag on a bit too long. Tracks like “Sola Skjultes,” and “Fjerde Dag” are interesting at first, but wear out their welcome after the first few minutes. This is one of the last lessons Ildjarn still had to learn; if you want to play simple songs composed of only one or two progressions with little variation, you better keep the song lengths short. 

This demo stands as a key moment in the development of Ildjarn. The basic sonic elements are all in place; all that remains wanting is refinement of the songwriting. There are enough impressive moments that Ildjarn fans will not want to leave this demo unheard, but newcomers would be better off starting their exploration Ildjarn’s discography with his next recording, the Norse EP. 

Overall: 7/10

Immortal- At the Heart of Winter (1999)

 

In 1997 Immortal received a massive blow when guitarist Demonaz learned that he had tendinitis and could no longer play in the band. Demonaz’s blistering fast-paced picking and exquisite taste in melodies were the central ingredients to Immortal’s “holocaust metal” sound.  With Demonaz down and out, the remaining members of Immortal were forced to decide between dissolving or evolving.  They chose the latter option, replacing the short, lightning-fast back-breakers of the previous three albums and with long, massive, mid-tempo epics. The resulting album, At the Heart of Winter is a surprisingly effective piece of epic black metal.

At the Heart of Winter is not completely without precedent. Both Battles in the North and Blizzard Beasts contain a mid-tempo epic, “Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)” and “Mountains of Might,” respectively. The contents of At the Heart of Winter are not too different from those pieces, though these songs are generally even longer and more accessible. The songs center on a few memorable riffs and choruses that are designed to stick in your head. There are a few darker moments, but mostly this is a quite upbeat album. Calling it happy would be a stretch, but it’s definitely pompous and invigorated. 

The drums are also quite different. The nonstop barrage of blast beats from the previous albums is replaced by a more dynamic and varied performance. The are a number of lengthy, melodic guitar solos as well. Naturally, the change in style results in a change in production. At the Heart of Winter was recorded at the legendary Abyss Studios, which is known for producing clean and balanced black metal albums. This is was certainly a keen move by Immortal. The clean and bright sound of the guitars and the full, echoic sound of the drums results in a massive tone that allows the gloriousness of these songs shine.

While Abbath has no trouble finding catchy riff after catchy riff, his songwriting is less consistent. The songs don’t always flow in the most natural manner. This is most evident when Abbath tries to integrate atmospheric or symphonic elements into the songs. For example, the title track starts with a two minute passage of beautiful, mournful keyboard and clean guitar. This passage would be excellent if it was building toward a dark or melancholic piece of black metal in the vein of Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism, but instead it is abruptly and awkwardly interrupted by a boisterous riff. It’s a painful passage that is not unlike watching a bunch of drunken frat boys barge in on a funeral procession. While this is the most appalling transition on the album, there are a number of less offensive but nevertheless poorly executed transitions.

Still, there are a few moments of impressive songwriting scattered throughout the album. The way in which “Years of Silent Sorrow” builds toward the somber middle passage is quite impressive. “Solarfall” does an excellent job of shifting between fast and slow passages and integrates a magnificent clean section into the middle of the composition. 

With the loss of Demonaz, Immortal was bound to change their sound. While there are a few areas that could have been stronger, At the Heart of Winter is still on the whole a very fun listen. Glorious riffs and choruses abound and the production and atmosphere is quite complimentary. The album avoids the monotony of Damned in Black and also steers clear of devolving into self-parody in the way that Sons of Northern Darkness does. While it’s far from perfect, it’s still a respectable and original contribution to the Immortal discography. 

Overall: 8.5/10

Gontyna Kry- Oblicza Prawd Zdradzonych Dla Krzyża (1996)

Oblicza Prawd Zdradzonych Dla Krzyża is the weak link in the otherwise very strong early Gontyna Kry discography. In contrast to the highly developed and stylized demos like Welowie and Pusty Wieczór, Oblicza Prawd… is a lot less focused and refined. The demo occasionally displays the band’s excellent taste for melody and harmony, but the sound quality is far inferior to their other releases from this era. 

The overall mix is pretty poor. The vocals are upfront, while the instruments are all muddled in the background. That’s unfortunate, because the vocals are not great here. While most Gontyna Kry’s early recordings have high-pitched vocals in the vein of early Burzum, here the vocalist melds a blackened scream  with a straight-forward shout. This is not the ideal vocal style for this atmospheric and melancholic brand of black metal. The guitars are sufficiently audible, but are weak and cheap sounding. The high end of the drums is easy to hear, but the low end is really difficult to make out. 

The songwriting on Oblicza Prawd… is not very interesting either. There are three pieces of black metal in the style of Master’s Hammer circa Ritual; while this is a nice style, none of the songs are very consistent. There are some nice passages scattered throughout the recording (i.e. harmonic chorus on “Pradawne Przymierze”) but none the songs sustain interest from start to finish. The intro and outro—which are often standouts on Gontyna Kry recordings—are also not their best. The intro is a decent electric solo backed by acoustic guitar, but nothing especially captivating, while the outro is an innocuous solo piece for electric guitar. 

Oblicza Prawd… is definitely the weakest of Gontyna Kry’s demos. In comparison to the feast of melancholic melodies that comprise the next few releases, Oblicza Prawd… is simply lacking. While diehard fans might find it somewhat interesting to hear what the band sounded like at this early stage, newcomers would be better off looking to the next three releases, which have much more to offer. 

Overall: 4/10

Countess- The Book of the Heretic (1996)

If you go to the Countess website you can read Orlok’s personal memories from the recording sessions of all of the albums through 2007’s Blazing Flames of War. On a number of occasions (i.e. The Gospel of the Horned One and The Shining Swords of Hate) Orlok boasts about making albums with the most “horrible” sound quality possible. He seems to see the ultra-lo-fi production as an ideological finger at overproduced and commercial black metal and simultaneously, a horned salute to first wave legends such as Venom and Bathory. The one album whose sound Orlok actually laments is The Book of the Heretic, which he thinks “utterly sucks” (which is apparently the polar opposite of being “horrible”). I can’t help but find this highly ironic, because The Book of the Heretic is the perfect example of an album with production that is in principle terrible, but on this one special occasion fits the songs like a glove. 

The production on The Book of the Heretic is like that of no other black metal album. Black metal is notorious for producing albums on which the bass is very low in the mix, if not completely inaudible. Here, the bass is not only audible, but it by far the loudest instrument in the mix! Each rubbery note of the bass stands front and center. The guitars are much lower in the mix, with the exception of the solos, which are sharp and clear. Now on paper, that sounds awful. First of all, the bass is a rhythm instrument and unless we’re talking about Geddy Lee, Les Claypool etc., the bass should stick to that roll. Considering that Countess is a raw, minimal, old-school black metal band, it’s hard to see how a bass-centered album can work… but damn does it work! The reason it works so well is the narrative nature of songs that make up The Book of the Heretic. 

The Book of the Heretic is a loose concept album based around stories of warriors who have sold their soul to Satan so as to rid the world of Christianity. The lyrics have it all: battles, torture, goats, demons and strange sex rituals. These are like bedtime stories from Hell. Orlok describes the various torture chambers, battlefields and dimensions of Hell in descriptive story tale fashion, mostly from the first person perspective. He employs a wide range of vocals to add drama to the stories. Of course there is his signature blackened squall, but there are also boisterous spoken word passages and bellowing chants. 

By and large, The Book of the Heretic is composed of slow paced songs that take their time to unfold, and that’s just fine, because the melodies are excellent. The songs mostly start out soft and subtle before eventually reaching intensely violent peaks. Orlok takes his time letting every line sink in, allowing the wicked stories to vividly come to life in the listener’s imagination. The trotting bass lines set the pace for the stories to unfold, while the devious guitar leads and spooky synths provide colorful highlights throughout.

The Book of the Heretic is one of those albums where every song (save “Creation”) is excellent in its own right. It’s tempting to describe every song because each one has its own creepy story to tell and Orlok is never at a loss for a few catchy hooks and dramatic compositional twists. For the sake of brevity, I’ll only mention the simultaneously hilarious and kickass “Give me Your Soul.” Countess has always had a theatrical element to its sound, and here Orlok decides to let his inner thespian come out. Our “hero” has a woman trapped in a torture chamber where teases her while preparing to steal her soul. “It’s not just your flesh I want,” hums Orlok as if he were talking to a scared puppy, before bursting out into blood-curdling screams of “giving me your soul!” It’s so excessive and extreme that you can’t help but laugh and bang your head at once. 

The only weakness of the album is the three faster, thrashy songs; here the production does lead to awkward results. The pounding bass and minimal guitar just cannot fulfill the vicious aims of these tracks. Nevertheless, Orlok’s malicious vocals and blistering solos still make “In Hate of Christ” and “On the Wings of Azeral” worthwhile. “Creation,” on the other hand, is basically two and a half minutes of filler. Otherwise, the longer, slow tracks all sound excellent.

The Book of the Heretic is a great album in the same way that a cheap, low budget horror movie can be great. Yes, it’s silly, over the top and isn’t executed with much grace, charm or attention to detail, but it sure is a lot of fun. For those who like epic and spooky melodies, demented fairytales and lo-fi production, The Book of the Heretic is essential listening and any Countess fan who overlooked this release should remedy that immediately. 

Overall: 9.5/10

Graveland- Dawn of Iron Blades (2004)

Graveland’s viking metal period started out with a blast. The first three albums each consist of epic riffs, textured keyboards and glorious melodies that vividly depict stories of battle and/or folklore. While the core elements are the same, each album employs them in an original manner, developing its own identity. Immortal Pride is big and bombastic with massive orchestral synths dominating the soundscape. Creed of Iron is similarly epic, but opts for a more riff oriented, aggressive sound. Memory and Destiny deemphasizes the militant themes and creates a beautiful, lush soundscape that revolves around oceanic folklore. With 2004’s The Fire of Awakening Rob finally ran out of ways to reemploy the style. The riffs are cookie cutter and the songs are overlong and bloated. 

Rob must have recognized that the style had become stale, because Dawn of Iron Blades contains some fairly significant changes. Dawn of Iron Blades is the most aggressive album of Graveland’s viking metal period. While there is still a fair share of melodic passages, there is way more attacking passages than usual. There are far fewer keys than on most of Graveland’s earlier albums and in general the soundscape involves far fewer elements and layers. The keys are truly a background instrument and Rob is willing to let them disappear for long stretches of time. There are even some piercing banshee wails that supplement Rob’s signature dry rasp. (These wails are definitely the best contribution Dawn of Iron Blades has to offer, though they will be better employed on the next album, Fire Chariot of Destruction.)

Unfortunately, all these changes do not manage to resuscitate the struggling Graveland project. The problem begins with the production, which is just awful. The sound is extremely flat. Graveland have suffered from weak production in the past but never to this degree. The shaky, weak tone of the guitars is especially bad. Considering that the goal of this album is to create a more violent atmosphere, the weakness of the guitars is a major issue. Here we are with these pounding drums and spiteful vocals, but the guitars are as thin as rice paper! The epic passages sound equally poor. The guitars lack the force to sweep the listener away. 

Beyond the production issues, Dawn of Iron Blades suffers from a general dearth of standout songs. While there are a number of decent riffs scattered throughout the album, none of the songs are truly engaging from start to finish. Most of the time, the songs feel aimless. They flounder for two or three minutes before stumbling upon a nice riff or synth line only to fade back into the nebulous fog of mediocrity. 

While Rob Darken can be complimented for not making the same mistake twice, making two different mistakes once isn’t a whole lot better. Dawn of Iron Blades avoids the predictable sound and generic songwriting of The Fire of Awakening, but instead suffers from poor mixing and sloppy songwriting. Ultimately these flaws are even more damaging than those of the previous album and as a result Dawn of Iron Blades earns the title of worst Graveland full length to date. 

Overall: 5/10

Ildjarn- Seven Harmonies of Unknown Truths (1992)

 

Ildjarn is best known for fast, energetic and addictive bite-sized pieces of black metal. However, his debut demo, Unknown Truths is anything but fast, energetic and addictive; it is plodding, monotonous and boring. His second demo, Seven Harmonies of Unknown Truths fails to improve on its predecessor, suffering from the exact same flaws. 

From the sound of it, the two demos were recorded in very close proximity to one another. The style of songwriting—longer (by Ildjarn’s standards), repetitive songs consisting of a few bumbling power chords—is exactly the same. Even a few tracks are repeated between the two demos. Insofar as the production is concerned, Seven Harmonies of Unknown Truths has a slightly more powerful guitar tone than Unknown Truths. The other elements are the same. The drums are very straight forward, while the vocals are rough and hateful (the later once again being the highlight of the demo).  

Like its predecessor, the downfall of Seven Harmonies of Unknown Truths is the mediocrity of the riffs. There are very few elements to Ildjarn compositions and without quality riffs, the music doesn’t go anywhere. Here the riffs are just big, weighted and flavorless. The result is an album that zaps the listener’s energy and spirit. Seven Harmonies of Unknown Truths doesn’t even have the weird, extraterrestrial-inspired ambient passages of its predecessor. Sadly, those ambient passages were the strength of Unknown Truths, which means Seven Harmonies… is even less interesting. 

Fortunately, Seven Harmonies of Unknown Truths is the end of the dry and dull opening stage of Ildjarn’s career. With the self-titled 1993 demo Ildjarn’s signature style emerges, setting the stage for some truly excellent recordings. Nonetheless, while good news is close at hand, the fact remains that Seven Harmonies of Unknown Truths is a total bore. 

Overall: 4/10