Trelldom
Til et Annet...
[Hammerheart]
I had heard so many bad things about this release that I was almost afraid to throw the album a listen. It seemed like every time I turned around, somebody was lambasting Til et Annet... for one reason or another. Approaching the point where I was going to dismiss this as a futile Darkthrone clone without ever giving it an ear, I nevertheless stumbled across it used for $6 one day and my curiosity and respect for Gaahl got the better of me.
Firmly set in the mind track that I was not going to like this, I tossed Til et Annet... in while working on a paper for my comparative lit class with the intentions of ignoring it altogether and then attributing my opinion to the majority. I mean, for fuck's sake, it is wrapped in typical black and white clichéd album art, its Norwegian, and the fact that its on Hammerheart (Kampfar, Carpe Tenebrum) didn't exactly thrill me either. The tide is definitely flowing against.
It became clear to me early on that I was not going to cast this off without some kind of fight. Gaahl's vocals (Gorgoroth of course) strike at full force and range from nice hypnotic screams to some pretty damn good clean moments that almost sound heroic. Even in the face of this, however, I would not concede; I thought, "Hey, what the fuck, so a good vocalist is giving a sub-par Norwegian band a few more moments of glory."
Unfortunately I couldn't accept that either. Something about this recording is amazingly fresh- heavy base lines, nice tempos, good guitar distortion. There is an intense set-up here that continuously pummels the listener with spirit. By the end of the second track, I had more or less decided "fuck it" and was drumming my hands on the table at such a ferocious rate that I actually threw my fist into the air and yelled "Hu!", a serious fucking mistake, because I punched my printer and in a vain attempt to catch it from falling off of the shelf I tipped my chair over and spilled my drink all over the keyboard which resulted in it hissing at me like a venomous python. The printer landed on my head about two seconds later and I was clinically dead for two hours.
When I recovered I started Til et Annet... where I had left off, and in the five future times I spun the disc that night it never grew repetitive. However, while I found this surprisingly appealing, I can definitely see where some would reject it. The entire album has a very "folky" feel to it and the production is fairly clear, making the bass and drums very comprehensible. If you are taking your black metal raw, sick, primitive, and evil with absolutely no exceptions, you may find this very irritating; on the other hand, I think Til et Annet... is a damn good recording, so don't make the same mistake that I almost did by judging it without hearing it first.
© 2000 hando
Firmly set in the mind track that I was not going to like this, I tossed Til et Annet... in while working on a paper for my comparative lit class with the intentions of ignoring it altogether and then attributing my opinion to the majority. I mean, for fuck's sake, it is wrapped in typical black and white clichéd album art, its Norwegian, and the fact that its on Hammerheart (Kampfar, Carpe Tenebrum) didn't exactly thrill me either. The tide is definitely flowing against.
It became clear to me early on that I was not going to cast this off without some kind of fight. Gaahl's vocals (Gorgoroth of course) strike at full force and range from nice hypnotic screams to some pretty damn good clean moments that almost sound heroic. Even in the face of this, however, I would not concede; I thought, "Hey, what the fuck, so a good vocalist is giving a sub-par Norwegian band a few more moments of glory."
Unfortunately I couldn't accept that either. Something about this recording is amazingly fresh- heavy base lines, nice tempos, good guitar distortion. There is an intense set-up here that continuously pummels the listener with spirit. By the end of the second track, I had more or less decided "fuck it" and was drumming my hands on the table at such a ferocious rate that I actually threw my fist into the air and yelled "Hu!", a serious fucking mistake, because I punched my printer and in a vain attempt to catch it from falling off of the shelf I tipped my chair over and spilled my drink all over the keyboard which resulted in it hissing at me like a venomous python. The printer landed on my head about two seconds later and I was clinically dead for two hours.
When I recovered I started Til et Annet... where I had left off, and in the five future times I spun the disc that night it never grew repetitive. However, while I found this surprisingly appealing, I can definitely see where some would reject it. The entire album has a very "folky" feel to it and the production is fairly clear, making the bass and drums very comprehensible. If you are taking your black metal raw, sick, primitive, and evil with absolutely no exceptions, you may find this very irritating; on the other hand, I think Til et Annet... is a damn good recording, so don't make the same mistake that I almost did by judging it without hearing it first.
© 2000 hando