Angantyr - Svig (2010)

Svig is the fourth full-length effort from Angantyr, the flagship act for the animated Denmark corpse Ynleborgaz, who also moonlights in acts such as Holmgang, Tagefolket and Make a Change...Kill Yourself when he's not busy crafting viking black epics like this one. Previous album Hævn had expanded upon the promise of forebear Sejr, delivering 71 minutes of noisy, cathartic and glorious death rituals for every warrior. It was a savage offering, and overall worth vouching for if you're fond of the style, but if anything, it was also a little long in the teeth, with several compositions wearing out their welcome after repeated plays.

Svig, which I translated to 'evasion' or 'fraud' in Danish, is possibly an attempt to repair its overwrought, elder sibling, focusing in on just six compositions at 48 minutes of music. They still carry on generally between 7-10 minutes, but there are some other changes here that might make this easier to swallow if you found Hævn too much of a burden. The choice of lo-fi, comic book cover art is a curious curve from the grim newsprint of images past, and the sound itself might also reflect this alteration, with warmer tones and far more studio polish than any predecessor. Granted, the level of composition is starkly similar to that of the prior albums, but unlike many necrotic visionaries who might succumb to the bait of 'selling out' when they record their album to sound like anything more than a toilet trip or cold night in the woods, Angantyr actually sounds quite stunning in this environment.

The primary drawback to this or almost any other traditional black or black/Viking metal effort in the 21st century is that the folk-fused glory of the riffing becomes all too predictable in short order, so the listener is left to judge whether or not the feelings and emotions, or lack thereof, inherent to the music are worth hearing such unsurprising patterns. I feel that Svig does fall into this trap more often than not. The riffs are genuine and well intentioned, fluently fixed beneath Ynelborgaz' ripe snarling, and the tempos meander to and fro from faster Bathory Viking material to segues of sodden, overcast glories, then back again, but rarely does a sequence of notes here stand out to your memory or the inevitable test of time. I'm still impressed by this man's ability to put together an entire black metal record himself, perform all instruments and come off as competently as many full 3-5 man acts...

...but the writing is far from perfect, and few moments of the album stand to memory, since he's already produced three solid to great albums in just such a manner. The more vibrant, polished production goes a long way to distinguish Svig from Sejr or Kampen Fortsætter but the longing, shambling Viking corpse rarely deviates from the course. As such, some of the tracks here, like "Svig" itself or the more slowly woven "Skyggespil" do their job, but little more. The work shift is filled, the employee punched in and out on schedule, production kept to the quota, but he won't be earning any bonus for this one. "Raukes Ran" is superior despite its familiar feel and path of certainty. The opening, ascending riff is one hard to embellish upon without losing that sinister, majestic quality, and though the rest of the 9:22 minutes does little to separate itself from the crust of this artist's career, it is well maintained. You can lose yourself here. The same with the closing "Arngrims Armod", opening with the sample of a roiling shore and some galloping acoustics before the electricity arrives, lightning flashing across the broken longship hulls and bloody, beheaded heroes that this man always conjures through this medium.

Svig is yet another of those countless naval battles which is just good enough, hanging at the lower end of your expectations without every truly thrilling you or taking you into some new, unexplored region of the storming seas. There is really nothing exceptional about it, only that it succeeds to plummet along for nearly 50 minutes without boring you. Those who prefer their black metal dried with tradition, never flirting with innovation or ambition, will likely be satisfied, as would anyone who fancied the first three albums, provided they don't mind a bit of cleaning up in the production department. Ironically, there's nothing evasive about this album, it plays its role so passionately and straightforward that it is quickly forgotten, but on a technical level, it might not disappoint the diehard Angantyr berserkers who seek out the same crossgates of early Borknagar, early Enslaved and Viking-era Bathory.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.angantyr.dk/

Angantyr - Hævn (2007)

Danish maniac Jakob Zagrobelny is clearly a very talented individual, and his band Angantyr is one of the best of the black masses to take Bathory's primal Viking core from the Blood, Fire, Death album and just run with it, or rather, sail with it... Hævn is the 3rd full-length, on which Zagrobelny, or Ynleborgaz, or whatever he is calling himself, has polished up the more repressed, buzzing atmosphere of Sejr into a more accessible whole. That is, more accessible if you enjoy hostile Viking black metal with no light at the end of the tunnel. There is a purity and longing in his compositions that I find refreshing, even if they are not stylistically innovative. Aside from the guest cello, all instrumentation is handled by Ynleborgaz alone, and one must admire this rather painstaking process, especially when the result is the very muster (or better) of many fully formed black metal bands.

Grim and endless. These two words define the focus of Hævn's 7 tracks, many of which run between 8-11 minutes in length. Indeed, this is over 70 minutes of music, so if your attention span sputters at reading beyond the first few paragraphs of this review, you're probably not cut out to lose yourself in its moribund, maritime pleasures. The songs do not offer a large variety of tempos, each is self-contained but will often batter away repetitiously for moments at a time without even the subtlest of changes. It's a formula that has failed a great many black metal records, but somehow it succeeds here.

"Et Varsel Om Død" provides the first 8 minutes of the album, commencing with the aforementioned cello player, then rattling into a hostile blaster hymn at around 1:40. The notes are chosen for their streaming sorrow and conjuration of epic death; while you may be hearing them often, they rarely grow tired, and Angantyr will subly shift back and forth and then to a slower pace for the climax. "Thulens Ord" feels as if the first song were interrupted so Jakob could take a breather from his black jeering, grab a drink, and then charge directly back into the fray. Breaks in the drumming create a sad, emotional onslaught, like a drowning man who dreams of a shore just out of reach. The opening rhythm of "Baghold" has a powerful, if understated majesty which is very reminiscent of Bathory, and the track only gets denser as it progresses. "Tågefolket" follows at 11 and a half minutes of spewed venom, and can grow trying on the patience, as it only lets up for a warlike vista and then a return from the cello near the end. Fortunately it's good enough to never fully engage your sleep mode.

The latter half of this burning longship is initiated by "Danermordet" and its howling sample, and more of the mid-paced, swaggering riffs that Quorthon could have crafted nearly two decades before. Again, no light at the end of the tunnel. No overarching melodies, just the melancholic thundering with the rhythm guitars carve into the forceful thrust of the drums. "Fødslen Og Byttet" follows suit, the last fraying ends of sanity dissolving at the nearly 10:00 mark, before the real epic of the album sets in. "Blod For Blod, Liv For Liv" is the 17+ minute crown of this work, ranging from the faster pace to the rolling marches of everything previous, and then to finally rest in an extensive cello/synthesier segment.

Despite its superior standards to any of the previous Angantyr records, Hævn is just black enough to get on your nerves, if you aren't prepared to commit yourself to its bloodstained, atavist depths. Even taken individually, the tracks are an 8+ minute investment of time. But the writing is solid and there is just enough variation in the rhythms to hang you at the edge of attention. This is not a band to break tradition, and there is nothing here that you haven't likely heard already, but overall the album is well-done, and if you can stick with it for its entirety, you are guaranteed to lose all hope.

Highlights: the long, sweet collapsing of lungs as all oxygen and life emigrate your tired body

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.angantyr.dk/