In art, no shame attaches to specificity, since that is better than trying to be everything to everyone and ending up as the same old thing since nothing pleases all parties. Ehlder make a type of atmosphere black metal based around stomp beats and droning guitars with angular riffs gilded with cryptic melody.
Nordabetraktelse explores the territory that Ildjarn and early Emperor might have found themselves in had they created a collaboration, painting broad sonic expanses with simple elements that rather than deferring to harmony and scale, see themselves in a void like free jazz, each piece relating to the core riff of the song more than to an external framework.
Modern black metal fans will find this baffling because it does not aim to constantly distract the audience and on the contrary, tries to lull them into a trance and then gradually insert its shifting textures of atmospheres as an aesthetic ideal. If you wake up in a forest after listening to this, it worked.
Tags: Black Metal, ehlder
Is the album good music?
It seems to be written like simplistic techno/trance music with metal sound and metal/punk styling.
Some fairly interesting riff hooks here and there, but they’re overstretched and lacking creative effort to make far more of the handful of momentary decent ideas.
The music would benefit from using contrapuntal guitar lines with the highly repeated riffs as a way to keep them engaging – as Varg did with his ‘trancier’ riffs on Belus, Fallen and Umskiptar, which make effective use of two or more intertwined guitar voices to keep non-evolving, highly repeated riffs interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYaZEGF9-jc
Pure Holocaust was a good music album.
All the Armagedda nigga’s bands are kinda boring. Sir N took the formula and made it more dynamic in Grav and Hadanfard.
Perfect sounds for exhaustion, lying in bed not quite drifting off. That was one excellent trip. The immediate prize from working out is the sounds.