Review Summary: All over the place, yet coherent. Raw, yet impeccable. The biggest surprise of 2021 in black metal? Quite likely.
Baazlvaat’s
The Higher Power is certainly an album nobody saw coming – it came seemingly from nowhere, sounding fresh like no other black metal album perhaps since its genre-defining 90’s scene in Norway. Is this perhaps a lost album of the Black Metal Inner Circle, that has laid buried for 30 years to ferment underground (that’s the trve kvlt thing to do, duh – Dead would certainly agree), recently unearthed in all its glory?
The truth is perhaps even more surprising. Hailing from Flint, Michigan, Baazlvaat is led by the guitarist “Declan” who is joined by his friend “Nlorgpipe” on drums and vocals, local teenage boys who somehow seemed to have managed to capture the same pure essence as their Norwegian peers 30 years ago that has eluded everyone else since. Where does this passion and creativity come from? How is it possible that even 30 years later, it is still possible to produce an album this fresh, that both stylistically fits into the black metal paradigm perfectly, yet is unlike anything we’ve heard before?
Now let’s not lose too many words on such speculations, and focus on the music instead. For the music speaks for itself the moment you hear its first couple bars. You just know it. You know it’s going to be a treat. That first riff!
Harvest Dream reveals itself in all its glory before the song even starts well. A folksy, celtic melody, to introduce you to what is to come. The songwriting is incredibly tight and coherent; it flows freely, unrestrained and relentlessly keeps interweaving new and new ideas, until it finally arrives at the reprise.
The vocals are trve and kvlt too – it’s a deep growl on the first track, but Nlorgpipe shows himself to be surprisingly competent with all different vocal styles you’d expect to hear in black metal – not just the shrieks, but also the cleans where appropriate, where he is sometimes also joined by Declan.
The rest of the album is incredibly varied, and the songs often have unexpected twists and turns. Over the 56 minute runtime, it never goes formulaic; every track is unique, and yet they form a coherent whole.
The Bay of Arvon rolls with an epic viking feel to it.
The Night Castle is a faster track with a similarly epic melody, but as it develops it keeps hitting you with unexpected, very dynamic chord progressions.
Divine Right is built on a simple yet extremely effective bass riff while the guitars go all over the place.
The Black Quest starts off with a lengthy free guitar solo in Dorian mode that leaves you waiting in anticipation, and then it develops into... a heavily blackened psychedelic rock tune? If you’ve ever heard of BMSS, you know exactly what I mean. The title track,
The Higher Power, goes really hard, and could easily be passed as a lost Burzum track.
Infinite Forest starts with dreamy clean vocals and a crisp tremolo-picked main riff which once again leads to an unusually creative bridge section in a triple meter with a lengthy and unexpected chord progression.
Beyond the North Star starts as a gloomy folk ballad in black metal style, and then unexpectedly, the organs hit and psychedelia returns, the song seamlessly interweaving the two styles.
Psilocybcasm starts with a dungeon synth-like intro that develops into another folksy melody played over a relentless drum beat, and that bassline! I love it when I can hear the bass doing crazy stuff on my black metal - wait, is that a calypso interlude?, and then the album comes to the conclusion on
Within the Air and Light, more blackened psychedelia with a very 70’s style phrasing, that provides a calm but dynamic logical conclusion to the album – our journey has come to an end.
The sound production itself is raw, but in no way hard on the ears. It feels like an impeccable bootleg recording. The lads are not afraid to include some guitar static in the mix as well, which certainly adds a nice touch to the final product. Don’t fix what ain’t broken, this one is an unpolished gem!
One can’t help but wonder, can Baazlvaat do it again? Will they in the following year or two manage to produce another, equally fresh and unique, yet meaningfully related album? Or was it merely pure chance, a perfect coincidence of events and inspiration and that drove Declan writing and recording this masterpiece? Let us hope it is not so.
