Minneriket - Gjennom meg går ingen til hvile (2022)

Gjennom meg går ingen til hvile comes not only after the biggest gap in Minneriket releases, but also as the biggest single leap in progression that the band has made to date. The hallmarks of the project's original style are still present in the rasped vocal and the raw black metal guitars, but these have been joined here with a far more Romantic, prominent use of pianos and keyboards, and a large cast of guest musicians who are providing everything from female guest vocals, to strings, cello, harp, flute, gongs, and saxophones...this was clearly not an album to be given anything less than the full-on, almost overblown artsy treatment, but even if this might seem pretentious when compared to his early work like Vargtimen, it's still quite the alluring album.

I'm particularly impressed by how he's able to slap together a dreamy piano instrumental like "Hjemlengsel" and then flood you with an operatic piece like "Begravelsens hjertseslag", on which the female vocals are very chilling and the lead snarls are as evil as ever. The pianos creep alongside this and other tracks, used as an almost cinematic accompaniment to whatever the guitars are doing beneath. The drums here don't need to blast or anything so you can feel out the beats more, and probably the biggest surprise was the bass guitar, which is groovy and moody and finally creates in own layer of mood that fits write in with the spooky esoterism of the album's classical side. It's so good that I could just turn off everything but the rhythm section and I'd still be bobbing my head along to this one.

This might have more appeal to the Gothic/black metal audience more than those who valued the original Minneriket recordings, but I think its quite an improvement at maintaining my own interest level. There's just so much going on here, and it's both seductive and evil while still doing its own thing and not aping other bands that have mixed the styles. Not entirely avant-garde in structure, but definitely building a unique identity among a scene of so many other great bands that have progressed into their own distinct realms. I don't even know what to really compare it to...Peccatum? The few extra years off were put to good use, and this is one absorbing listen.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.minneriket.com/

Minneriket - Anima Solis (2018)

If I didn't know better, and saw only this raven-haired beauty hanging in her corset, I'd have thought that Minnerket went full out Goth or something, but Anima Solis is instead another incremental evolution of the industrial/ambient black metal style that was started on Vargtimen. If anything, this album is even more accessible than the sophomore, but probably only because it is better produced and somewhat stricken through with more traditional black metal concepts in its construction. There is still that element of edgy, mechanistic-driven noise, the vocals are quite grimy and hostile, and plenty of the guitars produce a splatter of sinister, dissonant, droning lines above the central thrust of the beats, but it's a fraction easier on the ears.

It's also very weird, with a fair dynamic range between cuts, and arguably as experimental as anything the guy has written before. Take "When Life Gets Sick the Dead Grow Strong" with its weird, broken industrial rhythms, constant atmospheric roiling and trolling, and some of the most impish vocals he has committed to an album yet. Evil shit, and he gets the vocals to sound even more ridiculous on other tunes like "Between Infinity and Melancholy" with its cacophony of industrial clatter, or "I Am the Serpent Son" and its dash between gruesome, protracted growls and a snarl so ludicrous it sounds like its being performed by small, wounded mammals. I don't want to accuse the album of having a sense of humor, but it's certainly willing to go as far over the top as needed to make the listener lose his/her nerve.

It's pretty good, though, I mean there aren't really enough of these sorts of experimental and industrial black metal spinoffs out there, or at least not as weirdly absorbing as this one. Just when you think you've got it figure out, then he gets you with the hugely atmospheric "Alle hjerter banker ei" and its deep, narrative vocals and dreamy, dissonant guitars. This is weirdly creative, terrifying stuff, though it runs the risk of coming off a bit too childish or churlish when it goes full into its zanier passages.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.minneriket.com/

Minneriket - From the Veins of a Nearly Dead Boy (2017)

Minneriket's third album swerves away from original material to pay tribute to one of his favorite artists, and I'm willing to bet that you can guess it in three. You got it in one, Burzum. While Varg's material doesn't entirely inform the first few albums of this project, it's unquestionable that its leaning towards atmospherics and even pure ambience is partly inspired by an album like Filosofem, and why shouldn't it be? The rawness, the hostility, but also the melancholy and wantonness you would feel from that album translate quite well into so many of the potential successors, and Stein is able to capture that here while putting a slight spin on the original material.

That of course comes in the form of the more mechanical sounds that Minneriket is prone to. You will certainly recognize the lyrics and riffs of the tracks that are being covered, but they are almost all surrounded in an added level of ambient/industrial black noise, and occasionally feature a riff or two that he will deconstruct for further make it his own. It works best in tracks like "Lost Wisdom" or "Glemselens Elv", whereas others play it a little closer to the belt. They're still not exact duplicates, because there is always some difference, in the beats or the level of saturated noise, but I'm the sort that really doesn't need close approximations when a band is paying tribute though covers, I'd like to see the material adapted further, and this only fulfills that goal in particular places.

Granted, the originals sound fairly chilling and hostile even in these contexts, and as one who enjoyed most of them when they came out, I found this familiar and listenable, or at least as familiar and listenable as something like this Norse project could ever be. The melodies work just as well beneath the added level of mechanical grime, and clearly he's got taste in his  choices, even dipping into some of the later, understated material for an instrumental. Not an altogether unworthy tribute, but I'm more curious to see where Minneriket would head with his own material next.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.minneriket.com/

Minneriket - Stjerner, speil og svartebøker... (2016)

Stjerner, speil og svartebøker... might not seem like such a far stretch from Vargtimen, as it still cultivates the noisy, cold black metal atmospheres of its predecessor, but it is at once more 'musical' and multi-dimensional, a slight warmth beginning to creep in at its corners, and production that is a stone's throw beyond where the project was already at. Even the cover art is a major improvement over the logo-only boredom of the debut, and if you felt like Minneriket wasn't structured enough before, I think Stein made a quick pivot to something more familiar to those seeking out a more traditional black metal, but don't think for a second that he abandoned his experimental ambitions.

Such are present with the second track here, "Vinterblot", which uses the drumming to create a cold, martial, marching beat that intersperses into the roiling, droning guitars and cruel rasp of its creator. The songs seem a lot more adventurous this time around, with elements that were not at the fore now arriving...for instance, the rumbling distorted bass in "Of Storms and Sorrows", which actually spits out some pretty catchy lines that are slathered with all these weird, broken beats, enigmatic industrial noises and such. "Jærtegn" is one of my favorites of these first two albums, it's got an unnerving sense of warmth and light to the floe of chords, and throws in everything from crackling storms, weird tones that sound like deep chimes or organs, and all manner of shimmering noisy guitars. Other cuts like "Totemkriger" take this atmospheric exploration and apply it into a more direct, blasting, warlike experience, and "How to Write Love in the Stars" (great title) adventures far further into pure ambient territory, which Stein really does excel at here...

So if you can't already tell, this effort is dramatically and artistically superior in just a year's time to where Minneriket had already been, and ample evidence that there might be some legs to stand upon, since there's really no limit to the sounds this guy is going to jackknife into your skull. The absolute-zero-temperature temperament of the debut was but a cold spark, where in this sophomore album the flames of imagination have bloomed, begun to consume the firewood and fill the hearth. Still creepy enough to freak you out, but then lays your head on a pillow and does its impression of a soothing before it starts stabbing you again. It's far from perfect, and who knows what the goal is with such an esoteric project, but it's clearly inspired.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.minneriket.com/

Minneriket - Vargtimen (2015)

The first time looking at the Minneriket logo, I am reminded of America's own Leviathan, which is ironic since both bands practice a mix of black metal and ambient, in some cases with a fairly similar sound. Anyway, this is a Norse band new to me, and as I try to keep up every few years with that all that scene has to offer, I was intrigued to find out that this artist, Stein Akslen, has been chipping away quite productively. This debut is rather a mixed bag, in that it conveys some rather generic elements of the style, but it does so with a fascinating atmosphere that kept me engaged even when the riffing and musicianship could not. It's not quite as loose or formless as a project like Abruptum, but it's quite raw, unfiltered and inaccessible, which was likely the point.

The beats are cold, mechanical, lifeless, and while that's a proper companion to the music itself, I did find it rather monotonous, especially when they are being crowned by what seem like bursts of sporadic rasped vocals that don't seem to follow the guitar patterns. Speaking of which, while they often burst out into actual riffing, they often themselves feel like they are being added only as shades of noise to create an evil backdrop. At best, they'll create some dissonant repetition that fades in and out of the clamor, almost more effective in this purely atmospheric capacity than they are at constructing purely aggressive patterns, but of course you do recognize some sequences that are standard black metal with half-step variations in one direction or the other.

In other tunes ("Blodets Hvisken") they are performed as slower, almost droning chords smothered in distorted fuzz that take on a trace-like, noise quality. Neither end of this album's spectrum is particularly compelling, but where the synths or industrial elements show up there is definitely some potential, because you just feel like you're on watching from the sidelines at some societal collapse. Vargtimen is supremely unfriendly, uncaring, mechanistic, the black metal that low-grade industrial robots might compose upon the factory floor, and I think to that extent it works, but lyrically there are clearly some other themes here like "Wolf" and "Fra Yggdrasill". Certainly no trend-jumping here, but Vargtimen is not the best of Minneriket and recommended only to those who want a raw blast of dismal reality to the dome.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

https://www.minneriket.com/

Sculpture - Sculpture (1999)

Sculpture was another band of German hopefuls within the Gothic metal niche, and while the band name and cover art to their sole, eponymous debut might seem rather obvious and bland to those who follow the stuff, they definitely made up for it with a production that would rival whatever their peers like a Darkseed or Crematory were putting out. Of course that makes a lot of sense, since half this band was involved in those, in particular Stefan Hertrich doing the vocals and Lotte on the keys and guitars, and if you're a fan of either, then this is something you'll probably want to check out at least once. At MOST once. I'm not saying that it didn't deserve to be swept under the rug, but it's a curiosity that it was ever really green lit, I guess the members' bands were doing better for Nuclear Blast than I'd have thought.

Lots of synth-work, brazen and big bass lines, and a sort of poppy 80s new wave blood that courses through the songwriting veins. Guitars are simple but loud, and if you dug Stefan's grainy Goth vocal slice through his mainstay, then you'll feel right at home listening to this, it could have just as easily been a new Darkseed album and I wouldn't have known the difference, other than perhaps the more prominent use of the keyboards. The tunes are all fairly dynamic, with some different riffing styles and structures, but the one thing they lack is a real payoff when you get to those choruses, you almost always feel like the way they've written the verses and riffs deserves a little something more when you arrive at those critical junctures. In fact, they can get considerably worse...

An example would be "Deniers" which throws a shitty slap-bass line right in the middle of a driving Goth metal song, or its silly mid-90s Metallica lead guitar. That last comparison is not alone, because I think "Bring Me Down", their compilation song, also has that big, bluesy guitar with a riff and tone that sound like some of the more rock & roll Metallica. I've often through Stefan reminded me of James Hetfield's voice with a little post-Gothic Nick Holmes, so make of that what you will, but it doesn't really benefit this album. In fact, I almost feel like the more synth or pop driven pieces like "I'm Free" are just better than the heavier tunes, but even there the lyrics are very simple and dumb as they are on most of these songs...in the end, Sculpture has a big production worthy of its constituents, and about 50% tolerable ideas, but it never hesitates to snag defeat from the jaws of victory.

Verdict: Fail [4.5/10]

Blodsgard - Monument (2013)

Blodsgard is a black metal project involving Stein Akslen and his sometimes collaborator Fredrik Rex from Minneriket (who I will go into more detail on elsewhere). It's a fairly stark contrast to Minneriket in that it's approach is vectored in from a more big budget, purely Norse black metal style rather than the more subversive, mechanical and ambient nature of that other project. Monument is the sole album thus far and it was put out well before the latest wave of newer bands who are headed back in that traditional 90s BM direction, worshiping their Scandinavian forefathers; and you can tell that these were already deeply involved with the aesthetics, because this album is beyond mere competence, and quite gripping for anyone who wants this genre delivered with an icy certainty.

It's quite intense, battering black metal here, not as mindblowing as a band like Nordjevel, but featuring some great if predictable riffing, a bold production and atmosphere, and the very hoarse rasped vocals of Mr. Rex, which are fucking monstrous, and from what I gather this album is mostly just his own baby, with Stein contributing the lyrics. The production of the drums and the unforgiving, wintry nature of the recording definitely bring to mind some of the mid-period Immortal records, although I think these guys keep the riffs a bit simpler and more immediately catchy than those frost-gods. All the songs have their own identity while flowing together seamlessly into the whole, and while the drums have a bit more pep than I'm used to in a lot of other records in the genre, they blend so well with the choppier low end rhythm guitars and even the tinsel-like synthesizer lines often sprinkled over the top.

This is a killer of an album, and in retrospect, one I wished I paid more attention to upon its release, it scratched all the right itches, and even goes one further in pieces like the title track which has the perfectly calm atmosphere to contrast all of the heavier barrages surrounding it, almost like the perfect 'eye of the storm' set right into the middle of the tumult. It's not all that novel, granted, but its simply a quality production on par with what a lot of the long-term pros can put out, and the only real downside is that they haven't put out anything more in the decade since...get on that!

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://blodsgard.bandcamp.com/

Cryhavoc - Pitch-Black Blues (1999)

While I wasn't so hot on Cryhavoc's debut Sweetbriers (other than the cover), Pitch-Black Blues feels a little closer to what I had inwardly hoped for when I saw all the comparisons to their fellow Finns Sentenced. Granted, this isn't quite so much in the ballpark of my Amok, my personal favorite from that band, but the music resembles its own successor Down a lot, only with a rougher vocal approach that falls somewhere in between the two frontmen for that other band. Also, what the fuck is with this band and having chicks covered in sheets? Granted, this one isn't nearly as alluring as its predecessor, but is that some weird fetish of the bandmembers? Had this band continued beyond just the two discs, would we have been treated to other female forms wrapped up in tarps, tapestries, carpets, bearskins, silly string?

Pitch-Black Blues trounces the debut album in most categories, the most important being the superior production and the catchier songwriting. If you know their countrymen then you know this, it's melodic, accessible heavy metal given a slightly Goth edge by the grain of the vocalist and the general mood and seriousness of the riffing. The mix here is clear and potent, giving us everything from the smooth grooves to the bass, the snap of the percussion to a rich and full guitar tone which isn't too heavily distorted but perfect for this style. A number of the chord progressions and arrangements of the tunes here seem actually like later day Amorphis, so if you're into the Tomi years this is a gem you too might want to check out, it's kind of wedged between these two other, better-known Finnish bands...

And that might be half the reason that people didn't flock to it much, since you were getting these components better written elsewhere. Although this album is arguably better produced than Down, I think the songwriting over there was a bit more memorable, that's not to dump on Cryhavoc, because every time I listen to this one I'm engaged well enough by tunes like "The Wind" or "Metamorphosis", but they don't stick around much beyond that, where on some autumnal or snowy day I will reflect back on my favorite Sentenced stuff often. This is 100% the first contact point for this band, though, skip its mediocre predecessor and head straight to this one if you're looking for B-reel Finnish Goth metal with a hard rocking attitude and a lot of...women under sheets of some sort.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

Sleeping Gods - New Sensation (2000)

While it's not as annoying as the two covers before it, the Germans of Sleeping Gods still did not seem to realize the importance of aesthetics that would help them scale the ladder of doom. What do these old timey fellers have to do with the sound of your music? Were you just desperate for something? Why the third bland logo and title type in the span of three albums? There is really not much to go on if you're browsing through the metal albums at your local record shop, looking for something with a spot of crushing heaviness to it, unless of course you had already read about the band or heard the prior albums, in which case you still might find this unappealing do to the lackluster choice.

Unfortunately, I cannot report that the music of New Sensation is in any way an improvement over the sophomore album. It's composed at about the same level, accessible but heavy doom accessed through very simple riffs that are rarely catchy on their own, slathered in mostly forgettable lead guitars and gruff, growling vocals. This is also the album where they went the most Goth with tunes like "Together As One", but they're even more awkward than their goofy peers Atrocity who also walked that road, and unlike Pyogenesis, who remained catchy even in their pop phase (though many original fans hated it), they don't exhibit strong songwriting that would be required to bridge the gap. It's not terrible, but the clean vocals feel second rate and like their last few albums, they can't pen a chorus good enough to justify what builds up to it.

Production is fine, with a nice punch to the drums, thick as syrup guitars that convey both the heaviness of the chugging and chord patterns, plus the slight sense for melody they throw down, but the tunes are just too mediocre to care, and its by no means an improvement over Regenerated. In fact, this album is hardly any better than Above and Beyond, and thus it's no surprise why they'd fold soon after. They just never quite lived up to any of the glimpses of potential they showed, and were beaten to the punch by other, more beloved bands.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

Sleeping Gods - Regenerated (1997)

Regenerated might not look like much, in fact Sleeping Gods has never had a decent album cover whatsoever, but if you want to know how much better this album is than their debut, well...it features a didgeridoo on TWO tracks. I don't know WHY it features such an instrument, or how it thematically connects with the trudging doom of this German obscurity, but it's a fun intro to what is a slightly heavier, meatier, and superior album. This is still your guardian variety chugging, with a little whiff of the Gothic style that took over countrymen Pyogenesis for a spell, but it sounds more crushing and mournful, and overall just more professional and passionate. Gazing upon it, though, you can see why approximately 99.9% of the people in the record shops skipped on past it, the other .1% being the band members' moms and grandparents.

They bring back the female vocalist who was on the debut Above and Beyond, but she has some mixed results here, sounding a little silly with her frilly timbre in "Dead Calls", but effective on "The Wingless". The real star here is the production, which is huge when they are busted out the somber, understated melodies in amidst the dense chords. The drums sound a lot better, as do the main vocals as they get gruffer. I would often hear or see comparisons from this band to Sweden's Lake of Tears, who put out one of my favorite doom records in A Crimson Cosmos this same year, but I admit that I don't really hear much in common other than the superficial details of the gruff vocal, slow churning doom guitars, maybe the production. Sadly this one is just nowhere near as addictive as that, and it sticks quite close to the same style on all the songs, where that one had a couple folksy or old rock & roll experiments.

I definitely hear the potential here where I didn't before, and if you were into a lot of their countrymen like Pyogenesis or End of Green, this is where you might want to pick up their trail, because it removes any need for the debut's existence. The riffs do need to be a lot catchier, and lead to more payoff than just the mix of Gothic whispers and operatic guest vocals, but clearly more effort was put into this in both the studio aspects and the compositions, and while I won't say it's necessarily 'good', it's taking Sleeping Gods in a positive direction...or will it?

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]