By: Conor O’Dea
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 26/01/2017
Label: Werewolf Records
An exceptional debut album by a very talented composer, “Netherstorm” provides
the perfect symphonic complement to the complexities and contradictions of the
multiple darknesses at the core of our seasonal cycle, and is remarkable in
both mood and concept.
“Netherstorm” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1).
Netherstorm
2).
Shadowed Secret Unmasked
3).
Limbo of Abysmal Void
4).
Ethereal Visions of a Monumental Cataclysm
5).
Obidient Intolerant
6).
Outro
The Review:
As
I listen to Vargrav's
debut album “Netherstorm”, I am
situated on the edge of the North Atlantic,
caught in a season of deep lability which surges tempestuously between Winter
hurricanes and polar vortices. There could be no more fitting soundscape for
this temperamental climate; both in ferocious grandeur and ataraxic lulls, this
work captures all the subtleties of the anatomy of True Winter - full of
savagery and sorrow, of majesty and torpor.
Vargrav's
lone composer and musician hails from Hyvinkäa, Finland.
The project is self-described as symphonic black metal, which, given some of
the pejorative associations, may throw off potential listeners. Don't let it:
this is high craft which bonds the ruthlessness of its forebears with
considerably more lyrical and sonic maturity. The orchestral and symphonic
passages throughout add ambience and atmosphere without ever straying into the
territory of those black metal subgenres - it sews a rich textural tapestry
that illustrates a landscape harrowed and harried by the winds of the glacial,
almost retreating vocals and the driving flurry and hail of the guitars and
drums. Each song is carefully set up structurally, a frost-rimed surface of
absolute zero then torn apart by blistering raw guitar that comes through
in blizzard-like ruptures and cascades. Throughout, we have great, vocals,
sorcerous and menacing. Intros range from the almost science fiction inflected “Netherstorm” and the bombastic dungeon
synth of “Shadowed Secrets Unmasked” to
the restraint of “Limbo of Abysmal Void”
and haunting choral passages of “Ethereal
Vision of a Monumental Cataclysm”.
The album begins and ends beautifully, allowing a full narrative sweep to
encapsulate it as a whole. The slow settling of the storm into the austere
grandeur and ice-still world-view of “Obedient,
Intolerant, Ensnared” and the haunting, almost mournful instrumental outro
show deep attention to the album-as-tale. The story here is a memorable one,
and one I will return to time and time again even as winter recedes.
There are two great bonus tracks here which have ended up on a separate EP. The
first is “Glory of Eternal Night”,
probably the most feral of all the tracks. To my ears, it sounds like the
pursuit of the Wild Hunt - nocturnal, sepulchral and unrelenting. The final
bonus track is a cover of Emperor's “Ancient Queens”. It is a very
attentive interpretation that seems to fuse the symphonic subtleties of the “As the Shadows Rise” rendition with the
savage fury of the earlier “Wrath of the
Tyrant” version.
An exceptional debut album by a very talented composer, “Netherstorm” provides the perfect symphonic complement to the
complexities and contradictions of the multiple darknesses at the core of our
seasonal cycle, and is remarkable in both mood and concept. I am very grateful
that Werewolf
Records grabbed this brilliant work and allowed it the exposure it
merits!
“Netherstorm” is available here
