Review Summary: a norwegian black metal album
Rampant genre-splicing is a thing that the people who make loud music are doing quite a lot of at the mo. Sure, smacking (un)expectedly (un)complimentary sounds together is not an especially new or innovative idea, even in the stubborn & cobweb-coated corners of bm - see the variously weird avant-screms of ‘Fleurety’ and ‘Ved Buens Ende’ est. circa. 1995 - BUT(!) both the size of the gaps that artists are willing to traverse, and the frequency with which they endeavor to do so, appear to have gone (un)expectedly UP. The underground and overground of guitar-music have aligned in this respect, with that reptile and his sire
and ‘A7X’
and ‘Liturgy’
AND ‘Dodheimsgard’ (who?) each yanking out their slice of the maximalist///eclecticism pie that is 2023 (Periphery also say “hi”). There is, I suspect, scope for a clever and well-reasoned causal analysis here re the dividing lines of geography & culture having finally crumbled beneath the weight of The Internet, but I am neither clever nor reasoned and this is neither the place nor time. The point: less, as it turns out, isn’t actually more - more is more - and, by and large, people are pretty pleased about metal’s embracing of the same. Tsjuder, it would seem, are not those people.
Helvegr is a
norwegian black metal album for people who have heard all of the other
norwegian black metal albums and would like to listen to another
norwegian black metal album that is rather good at being a
norwegian black metal album. There are no bells, whistles or nipple tassels here, nor any jazz piano excursions, flamenco slap-bass asides or rainbow synth leads to speak of;
Helvegr is instead, simply, the thing that it says that it is: a
norwegian black metal album. Whilst occasionally trite, this 7-year-in-the-making slab of
norwegian black metal works well as a
norwegian black metal counterpart to the lovely-but-oft-overwhelming variety of modern m/, its no-frills-many-riffs traditionalism landing like the welcome bloody fist of an old friend (that friend being, you guessed it,
norwegian black metal).
Pine, piss, ice and fire are churned through w/ efficiency on album keystones “Prestehammeren” and “Gods of Black Blood”, the sugarcoatlessness of their zoom-y jagged grooves and big meaty hoofs calling back to the brutal simplicity of the band’s 2004 opus, ‘Desert Northern Hell’. Both tracks’ brittle production leaves little room for nuanced atmosphere and/or delicate touches, which is fine, because there aren’t any. Innovation and variety also choose not to attend, either here, or across the remainder of the album’s breakneck hailstorms - this is not thinking-person’s bm, despite the new rhythmic depth supplied by new drumming guy, Jon Rice (of ‘Job for a Cowboy’ fame) - but, in fairness, that’s never been the band’s modus. No-nonsense-frosty-fun is more their operandi, in respect of which each snappy cut here is well-versed.
Is there space left for an album this vanilla in the year of our Lord, 2023? Yes(!),
just. I can recommend
Helvegr as a palate cleanser only; it is not interesting enough to rival the albums and artists that it pays homage to, nor to keep up with the joyous variety of kitchen-sink metal, but it does provide a welcome shelter from the multicoloured storm of the latter. If you’re tired of those pesky bongo-solos getting in the way of the trvth, why not stop off for a cold one with the boys? Tsjuder have more than enough to go around.
