I found Vattnet Viskar (meaning water whispers in Swedish) to be a very appropriate name for this atmospheric black metal act, and there are many reasons why I enjoyed it. I'm no resident black metal fan boy, and when I listen to it, I usually like it decorating my savage black metal, or my crusty thrash, or even on top of some doom for that matter, but this rapid increase of black metal acts all around the globe sort of forced me to give at least a few a listen, and Vattnet Viskar is one of my first bands in this experiment. In a way, this Ep omits everything I enjoy about black metal; the savagery, the chaotic outburst of evil, the blasphemous approach, but only leaves me with atmosphere, and shit loads of atmosphere at that. Vattnet Viskar is monotonous and drowning all the way, so maybe a relation with doom metal is considerable, and it's perpetual and miserable, in other words boundless and spiritual. It takes you through time and space and you feel as if you're on the edge of a cliff, slowly, somberly, falling.
Yes, it's that mystical and mesmerizing. Of course, it's blatant that even though the music is very passionate and convincing, it's not necessarily something new for atmospheric black metal fans. Surely, there's been scores of bands who have excelled in a producing a similar reservoir of chaotically enchanting riffs, and even if not, you've still got traditional black metal elements firmly attached to the music. It's deep, dense and you don't whether it's spacious or not, and it's numbing. The one thing that I really like about this sort of black metal is that with the atmosphere channeling into epic moods, the music naturally obtains a bleak and melancholic stance, which is thrived even further with the passionate complexity of the music underneath blankets of ambiance. The music is may actually seem simple because the band tends to often stay in one form for along time, with tremolos lingering about for a substantial amount of time, but the music is abstruse and complex. The doom influence, as I stated above, might be hidden amid the music, drowning and sinking them as they linger, though I'm not certain that this influence completely accurate. In addition, the raw production quality has a shaking impact upon the Ep itself, proving to be very powerful and influential upon the music. The guitars are muffled yes, but the drums are even more distorted and resonant, and the cymbals almost broken and delayed.
''Intention/Oblivion'' has to be my favorite track among three, mainly because its melodies are relatively more harmonious and somber than the other tracks. It also bestows a breath of fresh air onto the album, with its distinct, comprehensible features catching the spotlight immediately. ''Weakness'' descends to the lower sections of the fret board whilst carving out some melodious tremolo pickings, and it has an atmosphere boaster during the middle; synthesizers. The Ep is also adorned with some cavernous clean guitar interludes and breaks here and there.Vattnet Viskar's self titled Ep will pleasure black metallers much more than it pleasured me, but I still learned to like it, and it certainly is an artistic and flamboyant effort, and it shows that these black metal-less halcyon days will shortly be over as I start my blistering search for more.
Highlights:
Weakness
Intention/Oblivion
Barren Earth
Rating: 78,5%
No comments:
Post a Comment