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.