Vargnatt - Durch die Stille... (2012)

The first time someone recommended that I listen to Vargnatt, I was rather unimpressed. The Wintergrab demo possessed many unlikable qualities, and I lumped this band in with the likes of Sterbend and Nyktalgia, soon forgetting its existence. Yet some time ago, a friend sent me the track "Traum Von Einer Jugend" from the 2012 E.P. Durch die Stille... As a result of listening to this, I surmised that the band had improved and might be worth another shot. In the end, however, this proved to be too kind of an assumption. 

For what it's worth, Durch die Stille... is better than Vargnatt's previous releases. The guy behind this solo project, Evae, dropped the whiny clean spoken bits that soiled earlier recordings, which is a plus. Certain riffs, such as the latter part of "Geist in Ketten", possess a rather disturbing tone and help to create an unsettling feeling. The aforementioned "Traum Von Einer Jugend" is similar in that it gives off a gloomy vibe while also being marked by a sense of urgency. Unfortunately, even the best songs on the E.P. are not free of filler riffs. 

Vargnatt has the tendency to rely on strangely soft and non-threatening melodies that are uplifting and somewhat optimistic. Some of the songs hint at darkness from time to time, then swiftly retreat from it. The clean guitar bits soften things even more, more reminiscent of Katatonia than of Burzum. As for the track "Erwachen", this sounds more like something that belongs on a meditation CD, rather than a Black Metal album. Once again, some one-man "depressive" project turns out to be more calm and relaxing than anything else, similar to the really boring and dull material on the Nur ein Traum demo.  

The production is rather smooth and on the clear side, almost in a similar manner to Sacramentum's Far Away from the Sun. There is definitely no rough or sharp edge to the guitar tone, here. One might think that a raw sound would benefit this material, but the songwriting itself is so weak that a change in presentation would not save it. 

While there is a clear Burzum influence, the songwriting betrays an inability to really translate this inspiration into anything worthwhile. Nearly fifty percent of the material on Durch die Stille... is pure waste. The remainder shows some potential, but it is likely that Vargnatt will continue to dwell in mediocrity. 

Plaga - Magia gwiezdnej entropii (2013)

Plaga hails from Poland, though one would never know it just by listening to them. These guys play a modern style of Black Metal that is very derivative of Swedish bands of the past decade or so. After a lackluster demo and mediocre mini-album, they went back and refined their sound a bit. Released in April 2013, Magia gwiezdnej entropii has gotten a fair amount of attention from younger listeners. While they have made some improvements, this leaves a lot to be desired. 

Musically, Plaga has nothing to do with those Polish bands that preceded them, such as Graveland, Infernum or Veles. The songwriting here is immensely influenced by modern Swedish Black Metal acts, primarily Watain and Ondskapt. This is undeniably obvious from the first moments of the album. Nearly everything, from the shouted vocals to the melodic guitar riffs, has been plagiarized from their northern neighbors. Even the lyrics offer nothing more than another rehashing of the same faux-evil Orthodox themes of the aforementioned bands. The production shares the clarity of Dödens Evangelium, not sounding so slick and polished but still possessing an overall loudness and claustrophobic mix that boldy marks it as modern. With all that said, there are some decent riffs on Magia gwiezdnej entropii. The best moments are when they go forth at a fast tempo, unleashing cold tremolo melodies that would not be out of place on Casus Luciferi. However, any momentum that they build is quickly lost. "Slaying the Spiritless Abel" features a lot of melodic riffing and stripped down drumming, somewhat reminiscent of Merrimack's Of Entropy and Life Denial, which clearly shared the same inspirations. 

One strange thing about the songwriting, and quite likley the main reason that this band appeals to so many people, is the simplistic playing. Though they utilize these tremolo riffs, the overall rhythm and the drumming of songs like "Trąby zagłady cz. II" and "Śmierć cieplna wszechświata" is often more rock-based and catchy, which is a detriment to the purity of the material. Surely, it is much more easy to digest and will attract more listeners, but the atmosphere is considerably less dark when such elements are involved. And though even Burzum resorted to similar rhythms, Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger later showed that the most bleak and pitch-black feeling was to be achieved when Black Metal fully transcended its Heavy Metal and even the earlier Rock and Roll roots, embracing total minimalism and falling into the dark abyss created by the cold and grim guitar melodies.

Magia gwiezdnej entropii possesses the aesthetics of something far more underground and necro, so it may come as a disappointment to some when they find so much melodic and catchy songwriting instead. This record offers moments where they hint at something a little darker, but they fail to ever delve to the necessary depths to produce this. Like Mgła, Plaga's material will surely be enjoyable to those with less demanding taste, but this modern breed of Black Metal pales in comparison with those that came before. Give a listen to the new Clandestine Blaze to hear someone doing it right. 

Carpathian Forest - Defending the Throne of Evil (2003)

Released in the autumn of 2003, Defending the Throne of Evil is the fourth full-length from Norway's most notorious underachievers, Carpathian Forest. There are a lot of things that can be said about this band, whose only true consistency lays in the inconsistency of their output. Despite emerging from the birthplace of Mayhem and Burzum, these guys have a lot more in common with Venom. For one, their recordings suffer a drop in quality from one to the next, yet they were always a very powerful and energetic live band. Therein rests one of the main problems for Carpathian Forest, as it really seems that they cared more for tossing together a collection of tunes and then hitting the stage with a few new additions, rather than putting forth a great amount of effort toward making memorable albums, in and of themselves. 

Defending the Throne of Evil marks the first release since the departure of Nordavind. This may account for the lack of attempts at atmospheric material. "The Well of All Human Tears" is a fairly decent mid-paced track, but does not come close to "Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern". The songwriting here is more straightforward, though the synth is still ever-present. This album sounds even more polished and modern than the previous records, a problem that worsened over the years. The truth is that the slick production matters little when the majority of the songs had minimal potential to begin with. The best track on here is "It's Darker Than You Think". This is both the most enjoyable and the most frustrating song on here. To address the latter, it's simply the fact that this track demonstrates what Carpathian Forest was capable of, when actually putting forth effort. Unfortunately, this is not something that they could often be bothered to do. At any rate, the tremolo melodies and vicious vocals of the chorus section show a band that is capable of doing something decent, but they utterly fail to capitalize on it. Nattefrost's voice deserved to be utilized for a much better project than this and is, in fact, one of the only good things about this L.P. The rest of the songs run the gamut from mediocre to the absurd, even going so far as to include saxophone bits to seem experimental and progressive. 

Defending the Throne of Evil is another example of horribly modern and generic 'extreme metal'. Here, Carpathian Forest just throws together Black, Death, Thrash and Doom riffs with no real direction. This is just generic nonsense with slick production no purpose or meaning, even more useless than Morbid Fascination of Death. Thankfully, this was one of the final abominations to come from this band. If you're looking for real Black Metal, avoid this.

Satanic Warmaster - ...Of the Night (2004)

...Of the Night is one of the very best recordings from Satanic Warmaster. Released in 2004, this E.P. features only two tracks yet clocks in at over twenty minutes. The material presented here is built upon the themes established on Opferblut, then expanded to create something more epic. The end result is a very strong offering from this Finnish Black Metal band.

From the opening chords of the title track, an atmosphere of melancholy unfolds. There is a cold, nocturnal feeling that is carried forth, very much suiting the title of the song. After a minute or so, a haunting tremolo melody emerges from the darkness and freezes the blood in your veins. This is the sort of riff that has hardly been heard since the era of classic Burzum. With the production's focus on highlighting the guitars, there is nothing to hinder the eerie and sombre effect of these brilliant melodies. The repetition also works well to create a somewhat hypnotic feeling. About halfway through, the song shifts from unsettling darkness to a very mournful and grievous vibe that is reminiscent of "A Raven's Song", from Opferblut. "Chronicles of Thy Astral Blood" does well to follow up on this, consisting of mid-paced drumming and melancholic riffs accompanied by tormented screams. Again, one can sense the shadow of Count Grishnackh hovering over the cold winter landscape; however, this results from a discernable influence rather than the outright plagiarism that some bands attempted. 

It is safe to say that ...Of the Night is the second best release from Satanic Warmaster, ranking just under Opferblut. Though has Werwolf chosen to craft an entire full-length in this style, it may have even surpassed the aforementioned album as the greatest of his works. While later records were often questionable or inconsistent, this one hits the mark and is recommended listening for those into raw and mournful Finnish Black Metal.

Orlok - Black Funeral Holocaust (2013)

Released in mid-October 2013, Black Funeral Holocaust is the debut full-length from Orlok. This is raw Finnish Black Metal with a strong influence from the LLN, especially Black Murder and Mütiilation. This solo project is yet another from Graf Werwolf, of Satanic Warmaster, and may edge out Opferblut to rank as the best thing he has ever recorded. In fact, it is near the top of a very short list of albums from recent years that are even worth listening to. 

Black Funeral Holocaust consists of seven tracks, three of which are sombre instrumental pieces that are well-placed to add an aura of horror and despair. The remaining four songs still manage to clock in at nearly half an hour, each working well to drag the listener deeper into the abyss. From the opening moments of the title track, one is taken back two decades, to a time when Black Metal possessed a more genuine feeling. The production is lo-fi, but still allows for all of the mournful riffs to be discerned, resting just above the Mütiilation demos in terms of quality. Speaking of that unholy cult, traces of Meyhna'ch's influence can be heard throughout the album's entirety, including some rather claustrophobic palm-muted riffs that are very reminiscent of Rites through the Twilight of Hell. The bulk of this L.P. is made up of very bleak and dreary tremolo riffs with fast-paced drumming that is hardly perceptible. The decision to bury the drums deep into the damp soil and to allow the guitars to be the dominant instrument was a wise one. As such, the hypnotic guitar melodies are better able to lure the listener away from reality for a while and into a nightmare of torn flesh, blood-stained crypts and a black hopelessness that rarely ever adequately conveyed through Black Metal, these days. The vocals stray a bit from what some may be used to, as Werwolf utilizes a less-refined and more savage approach, almost sounding as if he was half-rotted and recently risen from the grave. Throughout the record, there are instances of multi-tracked vocals that hearken back to the old Vlad Tepes demos, yet here it serves to give the effect of a chorus of hellish demons. The songwriting is varied enough that each track is able to stand on its own, yet the effect is still best when listened to in full. The melancholic vibe that permeates this album comes off as more of something that is being inflicted upon the listener, rather than as expression of the artist. In that sense, there is something more sinister about this. 

If you worship the likes of Feasts, from Black Murder or Mütiilation's demo material, you should definitely give this a listen. Of course, Werwolf cannot be accused of doing anything magnificently original with Orlok; his influences bleed through in an obvious manner, especially the cold, Transilvanian Hunger-inspired bits in "Black Hearts Symphony" or the overt nod to Mayhem's "Freezing Moon" found on "Mysticism Corpus Satanae". Yet the brilliance of Black Funeral Holocaust is the manner in which all of these elements are put together to create a cohesive and meaningful whole. This is highly recommended. 

Horna - Hengen Tulet (2015)

Two years have passed since the last Horna album, with little activity beyond a couple split releases. So the band's latest full-length, Hengen Tulet, has been much-anticipated. I was quite wary of this record, due to the disturbing pattern of poor choices that have plagued both Horna and Sargeist in the last few years. My initial impression was quite negative, but repeated listens have allowed many of the guitar melodies to seep into my subconscious and to grow on me a bit. Horna has long been one of the few bands managing to keep the black flame burning in the dark times. Still, there are elements of this recording that are off-putting and it struggles to compare to the classic works that preceded it. In some aspects, it displays a marked improvement over some of the shortcomings of the previous offering, but it is not without certain flaws that work to ruin this album. Some may be disappointed, so the best approach would be a cautious one. 

There are two significant things that are severely detrimental to this release: the production and the vocals. After Askel Lähempänä Saatanaa, and then especially following Sargeist's Feeding the Crawling Shadows, I worried that Shatraug would continue down the path of horrible production. Sadly, this concern has turned out to be very much justified. One guess would be that the cleaner and more accessible sound on Sargeist's Let the Devil In triggered a reaction toward future recordings and he has sort of gone overboard in trying to avoid repeating that 'mistake'. As a passionate fan of the old Moonblood demos and rehearsals, an immensely lof-fi and necro sound is actually very appealing to me, so this isn't a matter of the production not being 'good' enough. It sounds like they recorded with modern, digital technology and then tried to 'dirty it up' in the studio, after the fact. The various effects do nothing to help the music and actually make it more difficult to enjoy. One of the most perplexing things has to be the decision to mic the drums so thoroughly and to make them so loud in the mix, burying the haunting riffs underneath a lot of unnecessary clutter. Also, whatever awful effects they used for Spellgoth's substandard vocals did them no favours, as well. His voice really does not fit Horna, anyway, and he is vastly inferior to his predecessors Corvus and Nazgul. For that matter, even Shatraug's vocals would be a vast improvement over this ridiculous, Manson-esque poser. 

Regarding the music itself, much like Askel Lähempänä Saatanaa, Hengen Tulet is rather mediocre when compared to earlier Horna albums. For over a decade, the band was on the right track, probably peaking with Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne. Yet, in recent years, the consistency and reliability of this band has come into question and can no longer be blindly trusted. In the past, the focus was on the dark and mournful guitar melodies as well as the tormented vocals, creating a very obscure and often nightmarish atmosphere. Here, one has to listen several times to get accustomed to the clunky sound created by the loud drums, bass and pointless meandering of the main riffs. Shatraug's trademark songwriting style is still evident, with some decent melodies here and there, but they serve merely to remind one of past glories. This is evident in tracks like "Amadriada" and "Saatanalle". That is not to say that the material is bad, but that it mostly fails to live up to the expectations that some would have based on previous recordings. That said, the compositions are still clearly rooted in the old days of Black Metal, with obvious influences from the '80s and early '90s. The overall vibe is more aggressive than most of what the band has done in several years, with a lot of intense, fast-paced tracks. Most of this would be on-par with an album like Hiidentorni, if only Spellgoth were even half the vocalist that Nazgul was. Unfortunately, his distorted shouting just does not belong. Tracks like "Nekromantia" and "Ikuisuuden kynnyksellä" slow things down enough for the riffs to breathe a bit, but the Manson-wannabe manages to spoil those to a degree as well. The former is a bit strange and sticks out, with some rather bluesy riffs that are slightly reminiscent of old Danzig. As for the latter song, it is definitely the highlight of the album. It is here, finally, where the guitars step out of the shadows and work to create a darker atmosphere and to convey a feeling of mourning and dread. This is immediately negated with the completely out-of-place and upbeat "Sodan roihu", as well as the filler tracks that follow, so one may want to just stop the disc after track 7.

The sad thing is that even Hengen Tulet's best moments pale in comparison to the likes of "Musta Temppeli", "Marraskuussa" or "Baphometin Siunaus". The old school Black Metal feeling is here, it's just buried under a lot of refuse;. i.e. terrible production and totally pathetic vocals. This album would have sounded much better with a different mix, a raw demo-quality sound that focused on the guitars and left the drumming to the background. No amount of effects or studio trickery can replicate genuine rawness and Horna should have known better. While the record isn't a bad one, and is likely leagues ahead of most of the current crop of bands, it fails to live up the the standard set by the rest of the band's discography. Hopefully, they use a different studio next time, as well as dump the urine-soaked frontman and find someone more suitable for one of Finland's most respected Black Metal entities. Worth a listen, but do not expect too much.

Dying Fullmoon - Unter dem Thron der Sterne (1995)

Dying Fullmoon was a German band hailing from Lower Saxony, existing for only brief period in the mid-90s. Of the demos that were released during this time, 1995's Unter dem Thron der Sterne that really stands out as the better of the two. This tape offers the sort of raw Black Metal that would make most modern bands cry themselves to sleep, knowing that they could never hope to match the pure ferocity and darkness found here. Unfortunately, Dying Fullmoon ceased to exist in the winter of 95/96, fading back into the shadows of the Teutoburg Forest.

Though eleven tracks comprise this demo, only four or five can be considered proper songs. Over twenty minutes of the material is made up of various instrumentals, as well as a couple classical pieces. Most of the synth pieces fit, adding sort of a gloomy horror feeling, but the same cannot be said of the latter. The main issue with the two parts of the 'symphonie' is the clarity of sound, which is quite a contrast to the rest of the tracks. The sound quality is very lo-fi and is rather similar to that of the old Moonblood reheasals and demos. That said, the actual songwriting is more straight-forward and lacks the epic nature of those tapes. There are a couple sections in "Der Tod Des Zweifelspiegels" that utilize clean guitar and some spoken word bits in the background, creating somewhat of an unsettling feeling. It is done in a way to darken the song, rather than to 'pretty' it up as a lot of bands end up doing. The bulk of the material consists of cold tremolo melodies that hearken back to Under A Funeral Moon and Transilvanian Hunger. The harshness of the riffs is accentuated by the razor-thin guitar tone. Furthermore, they are played in such a frenzied manner that one cannot help but feel the sense of urgency that they convey. This differs strikingly from the flat and lifeless way in which much Black Metal is presented, these days. All of this is accomplished by a mere duo, seemingly, playing through these songs live in their rehearsal space. It may be that while one played the drums, the other contributed guitar and voice. There does not seem to be any bass at all, nor a secondary guitar track. Astaroth's tormented screams are similar to the throat-shredded vocals that Hat performed on Gorgoroth's A Sorcery Written in Blood. This does well to add to the grim and obscure atmosphere, as well as the occasional slower sections that are worked in. 

It is rather difficult, but if pressed to choose a favourite track, it would have to be "Bosheit Inmitten Der Stahlfelsen-Festung". This is the one that caught my attention and turned me onto Dying Fullmoon, and it is dripping with intensity and rawness. Really, this could be said of nearly any proper song on Unter dem Thron der Sterne. If you like stripped-down, primitive Black Metal in the vein of early Darkthrone and Mütiilation, definitely seek this out and give it a listen.