Review Summary: SOARING ABOVE THE SNOW COVERED MOUNTAINS!
Nowadays, there is no such thing as originality in any metal genre. Every single idea has been rehashed over and over again and will continue to be until the end of time. The most important thing for me while judging an album is not originality, but the feelings that get invoked when I listen to said album. This particular album,
The Deepening, the second album from Norwegian black metal duo Vemod and their first album in over a decade, happens to make me feel everything I love to feel when listening to an atmospheric black metal album. While their debut was good, their long awaited return is something truly special...
The Deepening is just an absolute mammoth of an album folks. There are tracks of approximately 13 minutes (Der guder dør), 10 minutes (True North Beckons), 7 minutes (Inn i lysende natt) and finally the insanely epic title track clocking in at over 16 minutes. Some of you may say that's too much. How can they possibly justify the song lengths? I'll tell you why. Because every single second is engaging as hell. Vemod will give you ferocious black metal tremz and blasts then turn to serene acoustic folk passages and next thing you know, you're completely lost in a chillingly meditative post-rock bonanza that keeps building and building until the riffage sweeps you away, making you feel like you just rode a giant wave in the middle of the ice cold sea.
What Vemod has done on
The Deepening is take the natural folk tinged sound of albums like Agalloch's
Pale Folklore and/or Ulver's
Bergtatt with the triumphant epicness of something like Winterfylleth's
The Mercian Sphere and/or Saor's
Roots and put their own spin on it to create a masterpiece that is entirely their own. It's not going to be for everyone. It's long and, at times, monotonous. But it's also incredibly beautiful and deliberate. Above all, it's everything that I personally look for in an atmospheric black metal album. Hopefully you all will get the same out of it!
