By: Mark Ambrose
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 23/02/2018
Label: Nordvis Produktion
“if you want totally transcendent sacred music, the kind of music
that, for good and ill, feels like a field recording of pagan rites, you merely
need to tap into the Swedish black metal of Bhleg.”
“Solarmegin”
CD//DD track listing
1. Alvstrale
2. Sunnanljus
3. Alyr – Helgedomen
4. Gudomlig gronska
5. Alstrande sol
6. Livslagans flammande sken
7. Kraftsang till Sunna
8. Hymn till skymningen
9. Skuggspel
10. Solvagnens flykt
11. Karleksrit
12. Fro (vaxtlighetens fader)
13. Solens ankomst
The Review:
Growing up enmeshed in Catholic belief, you
can get a real flavor for the Gothic trappings of ritual. Frankly, it’s pretty metal when you stumble
into the occasional mass that looks like the baptism scene in The Godfather:
palpable clouds of incense, pipe organ blaring, a waif singing Ave Maria, and
the tortured images of martyrs and messiahs emblazoned in stained glass, marble
and gold. The reality is that most
churches now, catholic or otherwise, have gone the Joel Osteen/rad youth pastor
route and look like a midlevel convention hall, with modernized “worship
pop-rock” to bum you out even harder than the sermons. Now, if you want totally transcendent sacred
music, the kind of music that, for good and ill, feels like a field recording
of pagan rites, you merely need to tap into the Swedish black metal of Bhleg.
Bhleg’s second full-length, “Solarmegin”, is a grandly romantic, but strikingly naturalist opus
of nature-worship. Sung entirely in
Swedish, the 90 minute cycle is as forbidding as any requiem mass, but contains
some fundamentally sublime moments, with occasional missteps. Intro track “Alvstrale” captures the reverence for nature that typifies Bhleg’s output – ambient tones, acoustic fingerpicking,
birdsong and folk percussion instruments act as a centering prelude to the
harrowing, distorted tremolo assault of “Sunnanljus”. The rousing gang vocals that occasionally
punctuate “Solarmegin” have both a
martial and joyous tone – I’m tempted to say “Viking” but it feels much headier
than that reductive label. The mournful
tone of tracks like “Alyr – Helgedomen”
and “Alstrande sol” only accentuate
the emotional dynamics on display; and, with my complete ignorance of Swedish,
this is all purely tonal and musical.
But then again I never understood most of the Latin lyrics for church
hymns or the Italian (and occasionally German) that formed the structure of
most operas, and that never diminished my appreciation for the power behind the
words.
The major issue at the heart of “Solarmegin”, unfortunately, is the punishing
length. I love delving into a long,
enigmatic black metal album, but at 90 minutes, it’s hard to absorb, especially
when some of the tracks just feel too long or, in some cases, not up to the
same production standards as others. “Hymn till skymningen” just sounds
strangely lo-fi in comparison with the full force, nearly Iron Maiden-esque,
bold gallop of “Kraftsang till Sunna”. “Solvagnens
flykt” has a distracting lack of midrange, and “Fro (vaxtlighetens fader)” suffers from a weird midsong rhythm
change that doesn’t really work. These
could have been compelling EP tracks later, or been reworked into a second
release. Even the mysterious, folky
closer, “Solens ankomst”, goes on
just long enough to feel repetitive. And
that’s a real shame because Bhleg are really
excellent songwriters and musicians.
There is so much to enjoy here that a few stray tracks can’t diminish my
hearty endorsement. But then again
sometimes sacred music is forbidding, difficult, and punishing. Maybe the duo behind Bhleg is
exorcising something beyond my surface reading here. They’ve certainly captured something unique
and moving on this monument to their beliefs, and I’m anxiously awaiting their
next journey into transcendent metal worship.
“Solarmegin” is
available here
