Ildjarn - Svartfråd
Review: Intermediary between styles, this EP was an early experiment in making ambient noise as a cloak for black metal, and is most similar to the second Veles album of anything in that genre. Pauses punctuate dynamic shifts, indeterminate notes and sounds elide passages of deliberately randomized notes in tight looping constructions laconically adapted to basic throbs of rhythm, and vocals double density texturally encoding sensation data to complement song structure slipping in and out of focus, deliberately, as if to mimick the breathing of a creature trapped in the distant forest.
While clearly the desire for more atmospheric work dominates this EP, it is no less violent than any other Ildjarn or Ildjarn-Nidhogg release, and thus is wholly alienating in what is unsaid more than is said.