Review Summary: Trespasser have finally found their footing
Sweden’s Trespasser is a proudly anarchist band that’s never been content to stay in one place too long. Their first two albums saw the duo mining Ukrainian anarchist texts and the biblical book of Revelations (originally written in Greek) for thematic inspiration and album titles. The musical palette underpinning this exploration was a nasty and often melodic blend of black and death metal that frequently brought to mind genre heavyweights like Marduk. But something about the band's previous outings felt a bit hollow. While Trespasser’s creative duo was certainly musically proficient, it wasn’t until their current release that they seem to have really found their own sound.
יְהִי אוֹר is Hebrew for ‘Let There Be Light,’ and this album once again finds the two-piece metallers returning to biblical inspiration and blending it with liberatory anarchist tendencies. Instead of apocalyptic destruction, this record deals with themes of re-creation in the face of a burning world. It certainly feels appropriate given the state of, well, everything. Instead of wallowing in despair, Trespasser harnesses the chaos and transmutes it into anger, hope and a burst of musical creativity.
This time around, the Swedish duo really let their guiding influences show through, namely Nile-inspired death metal worship and splashes of hardcore. They also dialed up the use of folk instruments and incorporated the choral and clean singing portions more naturally than in previous outings. On the whole this record feels more cohesive and compelling than past releases.
The album starts off strong with a triumphant military drumbeat on ‘Prepare a Way’ which launches into an outright death metal riff fest. Those death metal influences stick around throughout the album, as do familiar tremolo portions that range from meloblack passages like on ‘To the Congregations’ to the Belphegor-tinged ‘White Water.’
Where this album really shines though is when the band cuts loose. The beginning of ‘Strong Wind Blows’ would sound right at home on a Heilung album with its guttural chanting, tribal drums and victorious horns. ‘With Fear and Great Joy’ kicks off with a choir underpinned by a dirt-scraping punky bassline that settles into a plodding, hardcore-informed gait before building to a magnificently triumphant crescendo. Throughout the album it feels like the band gave themselves permission to explore a more diverse array of their musical roots.
The biggest improvement though in my mind is the full inclusion of Middle Eastern folk instruments and symphonic synths that weave in and out of this album seemingly at will. These are especially apparent on ‘A Duty and an Honour,’ which starts out feeling like classic symphonic black metal reinforced by plucked stringed instruments.
The songwriting and ferocious vocal performance are also bolstered by a production that's consistently dense and punishing but still clean enough that the riffs and instruments don’t get lost in the mix. In less capable hands this album could have felt disjointed or thrown together, but it instead feels varied and richly layered.
In interviews, the multi-instrumentalist powerhouse behind Trespasser - who goes by the moniker XVI - has stated they were involved in the Swedish punk scene before starting the band. That influence shines through on this record, as does the classic death metal they’ve also shouted out. Of course this is still a heavily blackened album, and frantic blast beats and tremolos are never too far away.
Despite all of these metal influences this album plays like a hardcore record, clocking in at a snappy 32 minutes. Most of the songs are epic in ambition but punchy in execution and the album certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome. In fact, I wouldn’t have minded another song, or fleshing out the playtime of some of these songs to allow for more structural development.
I think that what Trespasser has created here is a vibrant and intriguing sound, and a fertile musical plot where they could set down roots. It pulls from such a diverse array of influences that it seems unlikely they would exhaust it within another album or two. Regardless of whether that happens or not, the arc of their three-record career has been towards ever increasing musical diversity and growth and in my mind they’ve solidified themselves as an outfit to keep an eye on.
