Review Summary: Vattnet Viskar take a hard look in the mirror and finally figure out just what exactly they were trying to achieve all along.
Vattnet Viskar’s debut album was a mess of everything wrong with post-black metal; many of the transitions from soft to heavy were clumsy at best, much of the “minimalist ambient post-rock” attempted was laughably pointless, and many mixing decisions were downright baffling in their intent. While the band did show a decent ability to write interesting black metal riffs, the album’s structuring and pacing held it back from being effective at much of anything--resulting in a jumbled mess of brilliance and half-assery.
Sky Swallower left you to wonder: after monumentally failing to create the uplifting, epic black metal for which they set out on their debut, what in the world would Vattnet Viskar try to achieve on their
sophomore album?
Thankfully, the answer seems to be “anything but a sequel” as
Settler sounds almost nothing like its predecessor. Instead of taking a second whack at creating fancy uplifting post-rock mixed with black metal, ‘Viskar have instead opted to dial back the pretense--in a way--to create a more straight-forward sound whilst simultaneously employing a more detailed and functional style of songwriting.
By cutting out all of the rather awkwardly placed post-rock and focusing more on creating atmosphere through the metal itself, the band have created the album they should’ve put out three years ago. Instead of creating another strictly
post-black record, they’ve this time opted for a far more post-metal-oriented sound, mixing much of their post-rock influences
into the metal itself rather than making them strictly separate
from it. The end result is a much sludgier, mostly post-
metal record that still firmly clings to its ferocious melodic black metal roots.
And the result is (very honestly) completely surprising--because it all actually
works. While
Sky Swallower didn’t seem to know if it wanted to be Wolves in the Throne Room, Altar of Plagues, or some sort of bleaker Hammock,
Settler not only knows what it wants but has the detailed blueprints for how to get there as well as the knowhow to put it all together. For example, “Heirs” starts with blast beats and melodic riffing before smoothly shifting into a short post-rock build-up with a metal crescendo and finishes with another crescendo of blackened riffing and excellent melodic leads. While such a feat of stylistic and structural shifts would’ve been borderline impossible for Vattnet Viskar circa 2012, now such accomplishments seem completely trivial. The band have definitely, finally, gotten their sh*t together.
But, while
Settler boasts an immense improvement in songwriting, its sound
quality seems to have taken a bit of an intentional-yet-unintentional dip. As if in an attempt to completely disregard their last album, the band have also abandoned the perfectly clean, full sound of their debut for a much more raw or “purposefully bad” sound. It sounds as if the band recorded the album normally then took out the lower end in order to synthetically give it more lo-fi, “true” black metal quality. While distancing themselves further from the debut does make sense, the resulting mix leaves the record without a lot of the oomph its heavier sections potentially could’ve capitalized on, and the vocals end up seeming a little too synthetic in their aggressiveness.
Despite those minor issues with the mixing, though,
Settler is still a surprisingly enjoyable record by a band that really had no business making anything this good. They seem to have finally figured out their strengths and learned from their past mistakes to improve on their style in just about every way. And for that, I’m truly thankful.
3.4/5
