Svartsyn – Wrath Upon The Earth
A few years back I spent some time listening to a demo by Svartsyn. If I remember correctly it was nasty and fierce raw black metal. As this is their sixth full length it seems that once again I have some catching up to do.
As there is such a gap in my knowledge of the band I assume they’ve altered their sound quite a bit because they utilise a beefy sound on this album that is as heavy as a skip full of severed pig’s trotters!
The intro is standard fare but ‘Wrath of Leviathan’ aptly lives up to it’s name with fast furious riffing that’s evocative of the demon himself speeding menacingly through the depths to snatch a bunch of virgins off the rocks like the Kraken in Clash of the Titans. The vocals are brilliant too as they aren’t as heavy but contrast well in their rasping echoing. Svartsyn offer up plenty of variation in this first four minutes and some surprising choices of melody and a sprinkling of keyboards in just the right places to invoke atmosphere and depth.
Next is the six minute juggernaught entitled ‘My Mountain’ which does in places sound a bit like another well known band who used mountains a lot in their songs. However that’s easy to ignore as probably 90% of it is totally different. The beginning passage of music is fucking meaty as it pummels from a high pitched riff into a hefty chord based verse. Special mention for the drumming here too as it will have you beating you fingers, toes, fists or head off the nearest available surface.
The next three tracks rumble past with the weight of a fully loaded freight train as you witness more powerful and angry Black Metal of high caliber. Track 8 though really makes the album for me. It’s a slow and treacherous funerary incantation by the name of ‘Blood Temple’. Starting fairly modestly with grumpy guitars and regimental percussion it develops into a sacrificial requiem with the onset of a crushing riff consisting of both high and low pitched notes the likes of which I cannot remember having heard before. Couple that with a wicked blood curdling shrieks and the effect is exceptional.
He who knows hammers out the remaining 6 minutes with a little bit of everything from the previous songs. This album is really well written and produced and for certain will accumulate many new fans to the Svartsyn banner. It’s now time for me to dig up their other releases and give them some airtime.
You could compare listening to wrath upon the earth to eating cabbage soup for a week and then having a big fuck off steak! So if you feel the need for a break from the usual thin vegetarian black metal then tuck into this for some enjoyable meaty nutrition.
Black Metal is dead. In the UK at least. Seeing as though it is the place that gave birth to the genre it is as fuckin’ useless a broke-dick dog. There is no scene to speak of, just the odd one or two equally useless bands trying in vain to mimic some of the more [...]
Opening with a song title of the length Bal Sagoth would be proud of (thankfully that’s as the only comparison to draw), the imaginatively titled ‘A Glimpse of the Image of Lucifer Gleaming Beyond the Subterraneous Black Sun’ marches forth. Mid paced, it stamps away with the precision of a well oiled Black Metal machine [...]