Review Summary: Mighty oak upon cobalt tides...
Utstott is clearly taking more than a few pages out of the book written by Summoning and later illustrated by Windir and Caladan Brood. The one man epic black metal outfit offers a confidently swaggering and large in scale debut in
Hjorungavagr, filled with epic crescendos and melancholy melodies. You can see the Summoning influence in the prominent programmed synths and orchestrations, but the guitar riffs call to mind Windir in how much more up front they are in the songwriting. Hell there’s even some baritone clean vocals, reminiscent of the approach Caladan Brood took to the sound, that vary and liven up the album. While it’s obvious that Utstott holds its influences close to heart, that uncomfortably close proximity is what holds the album back from reaching its full potential.
Inherently, there’s not a lot the album does wrong. Each song features grippingly hypnotic black metal trems and pounding drum beats, the likes of which have built a hundred excellent outings within the genre. A nasty, snarling black metal shriek carries the album, along with telling the concept story behind the record. Whereas Summoning tackled Lord of the Rings and Caladan Brood retold the Malazan Book of the Fallen, Utstott reverts back to the age old folk metal source of inspiration: Nordic mythology. Luckily, Utstott combines strong lyricism with a bit more emphasis on true Norse history, which makes the potentially dry topic somewhat more interesting.
Hjorungavagr tells the tale of the historical naval battle of the same name, at least before descending into the mythological. On the surface it’s more or less a shallow difference, but on closer inspection the story gives it a bit more of a realistic grounding that is much needed.
As with much of the genre,
Hjorungavagr is best taken as a whole rather than by single tracks. That doesn’t stop “Storsalen av Eik” from being a highlight, due to a particularly entrancing main melody and the best use of clean vocals, but the songs blend together in a way that isn’t as negative as it sounds. It’s all about the journey and not the steps we take along the way. On that same note, the album’s total length makes that factor a bit hard to swallow, especially on first listen. Nine tracks may not sound like a lot, but when five of them are between eight and twelve minutes long, and only one dropping as low as four, it becomes quite a lot to digest. Some artists have made longer runtimes work, the band’s very own influences for example, but Utstott just doesn’t have enough variation and uniqueness in their sound to make it work like it should. As a whole however, that negative becomes less a deal breaker and more of a slight exhaustion that leaves the album intact.
Hjorungavagr proves to be another shining example of folk/epic black metal done right. It falters in its bloated runtime, lacks the innovation Summoning brought to the table and the memorability and variation Caladan Brood injected in, but there’s enough positives to keep the cogs running and well. As a debut, it’s especially impressive and gives enough incentive to watch closely for the follow up.
