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61. Helheim - Jormundgand 1995 [Solistitium Records]
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Similar to the way Kamfar play their caustic Viking/Black Metal.
The songs are lengthy, intricate and primitive in their nature. The
fast, lustreless atmosphere generated by the bands early works, makes
for hard digesting, yet it is Black Metal, albeit set to a Viking
theme.
Formed in 1992, the bands 1995 debut Jormundgand, is a
crude, almost incoherent set of songs that swirl in a violent beauty
of atonal riffing and primitive gnarled chaotic distortion.
Screaming shrills scratch the air and follow a similar path to
Burzum in terms of texture and disturbing atmospheres.
The Viking elements are virtually cloaked in the ear shredding
schitzoid vocal attack and raw to the marrow guitar sound. |
| Av Norron Aett [1997], the bands second full length finds the
screechy vocals replaced by a more gravelled approach, thus making
the fast swooning Black Viking Metal more palatable. Clean vocals
evoke the Viking elements that make this release. |
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62. Gaahlskagg - Erotic Funeral 2000 [No Colours ] |
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Taking the raw elements and simplicity of Ildjarn and fashioning a
more blackened heart within the low-drone atmosphere.
This is a wonderful, melodic surge of entropy, a pure Black Metal
tumult that is absolute Norwegian in style and deployment of sound.
There is a great sense of Dark Thrones Transylvanian Hunger oozing
from the degenerative simplicity of the arrangements. The brutalized
vocals, screeching and rasping dementia inject the music with a
diabolical delirium. The album is a collection of rage, soft
acoustic moments, controlled violence and a perverse experimental/industrial injection of electric sounds that plummets the whole
listening experience into utter despair. |
| Whereas Ildjarn rips the air with a direct and remorseless barrage
of simplistic noise, Gallskagg seep into the atmosphere in numerous
guises, all of which are cancerous Black Metal sound-scapes in
texture, all of which are fucked up and twisted extreme blackened
metal. Gaal, is more known for his long standing affiliation with
the scene, most notably with Trelldom and Gorgoroth. |
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63. Demonic - Empire of
Agony 1997 [Necropolis Records] |
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A harmonic distorted guitar sound that evokes the likes of Venom/Burzum. Demonic were a competent act, never managing to escape the
limitations of their abilities that revolved around the
predictability of the music. Formed in 1994, the band released a mcd
via Necropolis in 1995 titled, Lead us Into Darkness.
The following album Empire of Agony, produced a standard Black Metal
style of fast/slow arrangements which are here in abundance, and
this is an album of reasonable music set around one defining moment.
That moment is the track, Diabolic Blood War’. Here we have a
triumph of Norwegian Black Metal at its finest. |
| So here resides nothing ground breaking, but a solid release where
the slower sections make up the strengths of the release. |
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64. Morgul ‘Parody of the Mass’ Napalm Rec 1998 |
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A band who have relatively skimmed the mainstream with two Century
Media releases, both having a post-black metal Samael edge, and
revealing a post black metal/ industrial quality. Prior to this
progressive style, Morgul were very much a Dimmu Borgir related
symphonic Black Metal band. With two demo’s appearing in 1995, [Vargvinter
being the stronger of the two], the band signed to Napalm Records,
releasing the album, ‘Lost in Shadows Grey’ in 1997.
The symphonic beauty of the Vargvinter demo, seemed amiss on this
release, and it was not until the 1998, release of, Parody of the
Mass, that awakened the latent epic soundscapes |
of that demo. This is an album of vast guitar rhythms, thick
chugging riffs, similar in style to the Swedish act, Hypocrisy, and
a Dimmu Borgir like keyboard orchestration driving the whole sound
onwards towards a magnificent gothic atmosphere. The music sustains
its definitive moments through the commanding mid-tempo
arrangements, allowing the keyboards to bleed though the guitar work
more easily. The biting vocal snarl reminds you of the Black Metal
foundations of the music, and yet the majestic nature to the
compositions and solid production elevates the whole sound from its
underground rancour into a more sustainable environment.
The track, The Ballard of Revolt, is the albums finest moment, an
addictive, hypnotic track, displaying a mind encompassing keyboard
arrangement. This track alone will slither into your head and stay
there. |
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65. Abysmal - The Pillorian
Age 1995 [Avantgarde Music] |
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Formed in 1991, and very much a part of the early Norwegian Black
Metal awakening upon the stagnant world of Extreme Metal.
Dark brooding doom blenched Black Metal that opened another side of the
growing Nordic scene in the mid nineties. With a definitive Black
Metal vocal style, and sense of obscurity emanating from the songs,
the Pillorian Age, was a hulking shadow of musical anguish.
The music veered from any warm glowing atmospheres or likeable
melodies. Here we have a combination of fast caustic murky Blackness
and joyless gloomy metal that is dragged |
| through drowsy
guitar arrangements and a cumbersome production. One can cite the
early works of Bethlehem, Paradise Lost and Nightfall for good
comparisons to the overall ragged sound and doleful mix of fast and
slow compositions. Keyboards make occasional appearances to add
depth to the sullen atmospheres, yet for all intent and purposes
here rests a colourless masterpiece to add to the many shades of
Norwegian Black Metal. |
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66. Thy Grief - Frozen Tomb
of Mankind 1997 [Solistitium Records] |
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Melodic Black Metal sitting comfortably along side the likes of
Kvist and Hades.
These referenced reveal a full bodied sound and a varied approach to
pace and a sound beyond the trappings of the minimalist coarseness
of more direct acts of the genre.
The guitar arrangements weave across light keyboards to create a
stunning set of songs moulded around precise ideas and deep
atmospherics.
Bathory can also be cited as an influence as the track ‘Nocturnal
eyes’, which its Viking bombast will testify. Apart from a slightly
muffled production, this is a fine example of melodic Norwegian
Black Metal that is charged to endear itself to the ears as opposed
to crunching the lobes off. |
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67. Isengard - Hostmorke 1995 [Moonfog] |
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Isengard is the solo project of
Dark Throne's Fenris and its arcane
material is a time capsule of ultra early Nordic Black Metal.
Following the 1994 release of Vinterskugge, [the bulk of the
material taken from demos dating from 1989-93] the wonderful Hostmorke, album was unleashed in 1995, and revealed a similar raw,
rough and ready sound that airs a wretched atmosphere so relevant to
the scenes early evolution.
The primitive drinking songs and clean chanting vocals were not a
common theme for an extreme metal band to tackle in the early
nineties, but this style of blackened cultural belonging is now rife
in the scene, especially the Finnish scene. |
| Here Fenris is responsible for all instruments and the vocals, some
of which drift into the snarling Black Metal the instruments often
spit forth. There are vocal sections secluded from any instruments,
and many a medieval mood twisting through the raw production.
The final two tracks seem to be tacked on for the sheer hell of it
as they are snarling Black Metal numbers worthy of any Darkthrone
recording. |
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68. Frostmoon - Tordenkrig 1999 [Sound Riot Records]
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An album consisting of the bands 7” recordings and demo material
plus a few taster tracks from a debut album that never appeared. The
bands early Ulver fascination is blatantly evident across the low-fi
harshness of the production and more specifically through the dual
vocal style employed here. Clean chanting choral backing over a
desolate abrasive snarl adds another dimension to the primal song
structure.
The icy compositions also evoke that special Nordic atmosphere
shrouded in hoarfrost and battle mist.
This is a stunning release from a band who really should have become
more than just a ‘maybe’ act. |
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69. Ulcus - Cherish the Obscure 2000 [Shiver Records] |
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Featuring members from Windir, Ulcus share the same polished, modern
take upon the symphonic style as Grievance/Grand Alchemist. No
corpse paint, no ribald Black Metal surroundings. The music is
however part of the Norwegian scene and thus deserves to be included
in this list. The heavily orchestrated sound is set to a progressive/epic atmosphere with obvious Moonsorrow similarities, as the
arrangements drift between dynamic symphonic Black Metal and
brooding darker medieval moments.
It is the very dominance of the keyboards that drives the music and
the variance of sounds that introduce Harpsichord and Clavichords
amongst the stirring orchestral pomp. The guitars weave their |
| magic and the
harsh vocals remind us that this is in essence a Black Metal release
of rare quality. |
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70. 122 Stab Wounds - Deity
of Perversion 1996 [Head Not Found] |
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After releasing the Hunting Humans Demo in 1995, the
band forged
this slab of Blackened Death like opus that harnessed a sound very
much in tune with most of the Head Not Found acts of the day.
The Dissection style arrangements and guitar sound ala Dismember/
Demigod, raged forth under a snarling Black metal vocal deployment.
With occasional keyboards lending atmosphere to the dense wall of
shredding metal, and even a Gregorian chant to keep the proceedings
within the restraints of the Norwegian Black Metal scenes expanding
profile. The band featured members of Forlorn and Gehenna. |
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