Liljevars Brann – Helja Kor Review

By Mystikus Hugebeard

They say that 75% of a Finnish park ranger’s job is finding black metal bands that got lost in the woods shooting album covers. Suppose the park rangers in Germany had a similar issue. In that case, I imagine they would have the hardest time finding atmospheric black metal newcomers Liljevars Brann, given how musically deep into the woods they seek to take us in their debut album Helja Kor. Written in a fictional blend of German and Norwegian languages and dubbed “mystical black metal with a folkloric edge,” is Helja Kor a strong debut that conjures grasping roots to drag you into the heart of the forest, or are these woods still too close to the parking lot?

Liljevars Brann weaves together slow-tempo black metal with winding acoustic guitar passages. It worked when heavier bands like Panopticon or Ulvik did it,1 and it works here in Helja Kor. Melancholic guitar riffs plod beneath high-pitched harmonizing guitar wails like a reborn The 3rd and the Mortal with a harsher, black metal edge, regularly interspersed with panoramic acoustic sequences. Liljevars Brann excels at folk music; the guitars have a satisfying pluck and pace that happily reminds me of Uaral. The vocals, by frontman Sjelvindur, are one of the most compelling parts of Helja Kor. His clean vocals marry a mysterious folksiness with a warbling gothic cadence, and some of the album’s best moments come from Sjelvindur’s percussive intonation in the outro of “Helja Kor” and the somber shakiness of the beginning of “Krieglande.” Between the winning combination of black metal and folk music with the added edge of Sjelvindur’s unique vocals, the components of a great album are all here.

Unfortunately, Helja Kor struggles to truly find its footing due to meandering songwriting that begins to drag early on. Low intensity is one thing, but Helja Kor is also low energy, which makes it difficult to stay engaged. From the opener “Helja Kor” to the second-to-last “Krieglande,” every song is in the same torturously slow 3/4 time signature with minimal evolution or differentiation between songs. Even the rare black metal sections of the primarily acoustic “Sjelvind” feel melodically identical to those of the more predominantly heavy “Krieglande.” A 3/4 time signature isn’t an issue by itself, but after 40 minutes of overtly similar riffs in a stagnant tempo, it’s impossible not to crave variation. That comes in, blessedly, in “Brannstjeringen,” which ends the album on a miraculously high note through dynamic songwriting in a refreshing 4/4 time signature. “Brannstjeringen” builds towards an exciting, emotionally charged apotheosis that highlights how the remainder of Helja Kor lacks meaningful direction in its song structure, devoid of stirring peaks that move me like “Brannstjeringen” does.

Helja Kor touts a mystical, woodsy atmosphere, and this atmosphere is strong enough to partly compensate for what the songwriting lacks. The folk guitars are effectively paired with Sjelvindur’s vocals, and they just ooze arboreal mysticism. It’s a shame that an excess of melodic/harmonic repetition and languid structure permeate Helja Kor, because by themselves, the guitar harmonies in “Dansa Mej Brodar I Fyre” and “Krieglande” are enjoyable. It boggles the mind, then, how much the drums clash with Helja Kor’s atmosphere through a distracting mix that fails to effectively integrate them. The strength of Liljevars Brann’s acoustics is frequently undone in “Helja Kor,” “Dansa Mej Brodar I Fyre,” and “Sjelvind” by the incessant ting-ting-ting of the cymbals. Even towards the end of “Brannstjeringen,” the drums leave a stain on the song’s highest point with loud, off-tempo blast beats. It’s clear that Liljevars Brann has put a lot of thought into the unique atmosphere they want to create, but it unravels at almost every turn through songwriting that doesn’t support it and a mix that dilutes it.

Helja Kor is the type of record where it’s easier to appreciate what Liljevars Brann is trying to do than enjoy its execution. There are glimpses of a compelling folkloric atmosphere to be found, but Helja Kor flounders in excessive repetition, frequently dissatisfying structure, and irritating production choices. And yet, I abhor the thought of abandoning Liljevars Brann for good because there is a real vision here, and I want to see it realized. Helja Kor has enough individually solid aspects—Sjelvindur’s vocals, the Uaral-esque acoustics, the black metal harmonies, the peaks of “Brannstjeringen”—to compel me to keep my eye on Liljevars Brann in hopes that their next release finds me more lost in the woods than a mere park ranger can handle.

Rating: Disappointing
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR MP3
Label: Argonauta Records
Websites: facebook | bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: September 27th, 2024

#20 #2024 #ArgonautaRecords #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackFolkMetal #BlackMetal #GermanMetal #HeljaKor #LiljevarsBrann #OctoberFalls #OctopusRising #Panopticon #Sep24 #The3rdAndTheMortal #Uaral #Ulver #Ulvik

Ulvik, Norway.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ulvik,_Norway_2021-07-26_(01).jpg

#Ulvik #Norway #Norge #ArtWithOpenSource #Darktable #CCBYSA #Nature #NaturePhotography #Landscape #LandscapePhotography #Photography

Ulvik – Last Rites | Dire Omens Review

By Mystikus Hugebeard

Last Rites | Dire Omens. Interesting album title, that. Last rites signify mourning and gentle acceptance, while dire omens suggest malevolence, a promise of death yet to come. Likely by design, these contrasting themes directly apply to the kind of neofolk and atmospheric black metal that Canadian duo Ulvik peddles, as the sad beauty of their folk music inevitably succumbs to a more pronounced black metal malevolence. Hailing from the endless pine trees of Canada’s westernmost territory British Columbia, Ulvik invites you to immerse yourself in their rural melancholy with their fourth opus, Last Rites | Dire Omens.

Ulvik’s atmospheric black/folk manifests in ways both familiar and unfamiliar for the genre. The implementation of acoustic guitars and strings reminds one of bands like Nechochwen and Panopticon, while the emotional tone wouldn’t feel out of place alongside the prairie-doom-isms of Altars of Grief. The metal, on the other hand, challenges the atmoblack label. Opener “Through False Dust” may initially give the impression of a traditionally atmospheric approach with distant, chilly tremolos, but the guitars quickly gain an uncharacteristic urgency as the album progresses. Last Rites | Dire Omens won’t allow you to drift into pleasant listlessness as you might elsewhere; many of the album’s deep, at times almost chugging riffs have a blunt force to them that demands your attention, while the vocalist’s emotive shrieks and all the wailing layers of guitars veer more into post-black metal territory. But while I typically associate emotions like sorrow or grief with the peaks of typical post-black metal, when Ulvik is at their heaviest in a track like “Sown on Earth,” I hear only anger.

Much of what works about Last Rites | Dire Omens lies in the simple appeal of Ulvik’s soundscape. Within the greater pantheon of folky atmoblack bands, Ulvik’s folk elements are some of the best I’ve heard. They bring to life the album’s bleak atmosphere while simultaneously underlining it with beauty; the heavier songs open with densely layered strings that have real grit to them, while the acoustic guitars are softer, offering a comforting reprieve. The acoustic interludes, which could’ve just been unremarkable asides, become genuine album highlights in Ulvik’s hands. This evocative, expressive dark folk pairs nicely with the metal’s bluntness and serves as an effective foil to the folk’s subtleties. After the gradual build of miserable strings and anguished spoken words in “Sown on Earth,” that aforementioned anger in the song’s crushing verse cuts all the deeper. That same bluntness did initially make the eight-minute “Glass & Scythe” feel tedious, but I’ve grown fond of its variations-on-a-theme approach to a simple, satisfying motif, for within this simplicity lies an emotional clarity that is thus enabled to shine through.

For most of the album’s duration, few issues stood out as terribly damning. The folk instruments are sorely missed within “Life & Death Are One”‘s repetitive avant-garde dissonance, and the first interlude, “Woven Into Threads,” is placed too early as the third song, but nevertheless, the album was overall an easy recommend. Emphasis on was, because the closing duo of songs changed matters for the worse. “The Pallid Mask” mirrors the increasing violence of the spoken words from “Sown on Earth,” but the speaker’s forceful delivery isn’t as believable and the song crawls to an insultingly short payoff that’s negligible in comparison. “Yesterday & Years Ago” has a more concrete, satisfying melancholy to it, but toothlessly meanders into yet more overlong spoken words without ever hitting its stride. Perhaps these songs might not offend as much were they spread out, but together they end the album on an extremely dour note that I’ve begun avoiding altogether on repeat listens. Each song builds towards a resolution that either disappoints or never even arrives, and in so doing rob the album as a whole of the resolution it deserved.

Perhaps the final word on this album isn’t as positive as I’d like, but I’m glad I found Ulvik. There’s a lot to like about the evocative dark folk and emotionally charged atmoblack that Ulvik brings to the table, and there are plenty of moments in Last Rites | Dire Omens that demonstrate why Ulvik is worth your time if this type of music appeals to you like it does to me. What a shame, then, that this album stumbles so hard at the finish line. There exists a differently organized or edited version of this album that I’d have gladly rated higher, but when an album ends on consecutive songs that so utterly miss the mark, it can’t be ignored.

Rating: Mixed
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps
Label: Avantgarde Music
Websites: bandcamp | facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 24, 2024

#25 #2024 #AltarsOfGrief #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AvantgardeMusic #BlackMetal #CanadianMetal #LastRitesDireOmens #May24 #Nechochwen #Neofolk #Panopticon #PostBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #Ulvik