Artist......: Vargrav
Album.......: Encircle the Spectral Dimension
Year........: 2023

Genre.......: Black Metal
Label.......: Werewolf Records
Cat.No......:

Source......: EP-WEB (24bit)
Encoder.....: libFLAC
Quality.....: 1667kbps avg. / 44.1kHz / 2 channels

Playtime....: 00:17:45  (222.22MB)
R.date......: 2023-06-11
S.date......: 2023-04-16

Website.....: http://open.qobuz.com/album/u898vmhgczyva

Disc 1 / 1

01. Encircle the Spectral Dimension                                 5:48
02. The Glory of Eternal Night                                      6:07
03. Netherstorm (Live)                                              5:50

It’s heartening in a way that bands like Vargrav not only exist, but manage
to maintain an audience large enough to make their persistence worth the
effort. This hearkens back to a simpler time when black metal was weirdo
music, and I mean actually existing weirdo music, as in totally unaware of
itself and its standing amongst the surrounding cultural fauna. And
definitely before academics and hordes of pseudo intellectual bloggers
(yep) spat out endless half-baked theoretical frameworks in an attempt to
bottle its essence for popular consumption. This is unsalvageable in the
eyes of cultural orthodoxy.

It’s little surprise that black metal’s “pre-intellectual” flame is being
kept alive by Finland. This EP is a brief primer for Vargrav’s forthcoming
album, seeing two original tracks, a cover of Emperor’s ‘Ancient Queen’,
and a live rendition of ‘Netherstorm’, the title track from their debut
album.

The joy of Vargrav is not hard to explain. It maintains the extreme theatre
of classic symphonic black metal. But more importantly, it retains the low
budget charm of the subgenre in its developmental stage. It warrants
comparison to early Nokturnal Mortum or Abigor more than it does the grand
esotericism of ‘Anthems to Welkin at Dusk’.

The riffs themselves are a variant of dark, hyper fast thrash, augmented by
choppy, tight drum work veering from tight blast-beats to pounding half
tempo transitions. Rich keyboard layers follow the progressions of the
guitars, sometimes diving into elegant ascending harmonies to elevate the
at times basic riff package. Drab, melodic bass hooks are also clearly
discernible within a mix that leaves plenty of room for nuance. Breaks in
tempo to articulate more developed melodic hooks provide welcome variation
in pacing and intensity between empty speed thrills.

As pleasing as this is to long time fans of this much maligned subgenre, it
is remarkable how naïve it appears to contemporary ears. But in this
revelation there is cause for hope. There is a reason this variant of black
metal was never assimilated by the ripped jeans and flannel shirt movement
of post 2000 black metal. The high drama, gauche aesthetic package, the
presentation untroubled by audience perception proved (and continues to
prove) to be too much to swallow for external music fans interested in
black metal only insofar as a means to deploy blast-beats, tremolo picking,
and intense vocal delivery to otherwise bland furniture indie. The
orchestration, fantasy imagery, and limitless joy in musical exploration of
symphonic black metal continues to defy the tastes of fair-weather friends
of the genre.