Release date: 3/12/2018
Label: Ván Records
By: J. C. Lerche
Back in the horrible year of 2012, Svartidauði's first full-length "Flesh Cathedral" was the herald that signaled the emergence of the current Icelandic black metal scene. It was filled to the brim with dissonant guitars, heavy bass and chaotic drumming, and too many memorable moments to count. It's just one of those dark atmospheric albums, that has become a modern classic in my musical library. Queue a few years, 3 EP's ("Synthesis of Whore and Beast" in particular deserves equal commendation.) and a live-album later - at the end of 2018, the band finally released the long-awaited full-length sequel album, "Revelations of the Red Sword". I have now had a few months with this album to make up my mind.
Normally, when reviewing albums, I will try to look at the album as a whole - A journey, an experience. For this review, I have chosen to give a track-by-track review for reasons that will become obvious later. For now, let's just say that I have been trying to let this album grow on me, with mixed results.
Granted, when the album kicks off with "Sol Ascending", most things seems to be in order; it's a fairly good introduction-track to the album, evening out as a bridge between their former material and their progress as a band. It does a good job of building up an atmosphere of impending doom, and the song, as a whole, feels well structured and put together
Same goes for "Burning Worlds of Excrement", which understandably got picked out as the first single for this album; even more aggressive than the previous track, it manages to utilize drummer Magnús' talents for chaotic fills to the fullest potential. I really like the high-tempo carnage it unveils upon the listener, while still showing a sense of direction.
Overall, the drums dominate the soundscape of this album, although the high-level production and mix keep all the instruments, minus the bass, audible and distinctive. The bass is, in true black metal fashion, nearly absent in the mix, drowned out by the guitar and drums. The vocals, much like Sinmara, is used as a faint howl and scream in the background of the mix, never truly shining through.
And then come "The Howling Cynocephali", and all bets are off the table. The balloon deflates. "What is going on here?" I ask myself. There is no suspense, the songwriting is confused, even a bit uninspired, to the point that I'm starting to question whether it's even the same band playing compared to the two previous songs. All is not lost, though; around 4 minutes in, there is a great piece wanting to reveal itself hidden here, this is a good piece that could have been utilized better, if it was decoupled from the botched first half of the song. I have yet to feel anything but confusion and indifference by this track as a whole. The best thing I can say about this track is that it added the word "Cynocephali" to my vocabulary.
Svartidauði
"Reveries of Conflagration" begins fairly promising with a guitar picking a few disharmonic tones. Just before the 3-minute mark there is a piece that would have slotted perfectly into the new Sinmara-album, which is no surprise since guitarist Þórir is also associated with this band. The song goes on fairly decently and actually manages to not lose the thread. A passable song, not much else to say.
Finally, there is "Aureum Lux", and if the lackluster intro is anything to go by, this is going to be a fairly boring track. It does get better along the way though. I feel that they may have been bits here that may have worked in a different setting: When the song does kick off after the intro, the sudden gear-change actually feels welcome, and there is even a big throwback to "Flesh Cathedral" halfway through in terms of tone and atmosphere, and this piece could easily have been the final of the song. This is a song that could have been a great closure on this album, but like other songs on this album, it falls into the habit of throwing riffs at the wall to see what sticks. The aforementioned throwback-piece is followed up by one of these riffs, and it completely messes up the tone, tempo and feeling. Godfriggin' dammit, Svartidauði, you screwed it up!
*sigh*
I'm gonna let Svartidauði a bit off the hook here; between 2012 and "Revelations of the Red sword" guitarist Nökkvi left the band, and as such, remaining guitarist Þórir had to do all guitars here on his own. Now, I can't say anything about the band's internal workings, but to me as a listener, "Revelations of the Red Sword" sounds awfully unbalanced compared to "Flesh Cathedral", and even to "Synthesis of Whore and Beast", and I can't help but wonder if Nökkvi was one of the reasons the aforementioned releases turned out so good, and why this one feels incomplete, un-dynamic and stitched together.
In conclusion, I expected more from this album than it was able to deliver, and as an album, a journey from point A to point B, it fails. As an experience, it's not one that I really enjoyed, changing direction far too often to my liking, leaving me more baffled than entertained or entranced. As individual tracks, a few of them are indeed good, some of them are not. Salvage the good for your personal library, discard the rest.
We give this album
Out of 6
Favorite track: Sol Ascending
1. Sol Ascending
2. Burning Worlds of Excrement
3. The Howling Cynocephali
4. Wolves of a Red Sun
5. Reveries of Conflagration
6. Aureum Lux
Facebook: facebook.com/svartidaudi/
Bandcamp: svartidaudi.bandcamp.com
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