Blodsrit - Diktat Deliberi (2012)

Blodsrit could hardly be considered the most prominent black metal act in their native Swedish scene, but 14 years and 6-full lengths ensure that they've been one of its most functional and consistent. I think part of their obscurity can be attributed to the fact that they've hardly broken the mold of the many and more celebrated Scandinavian peers. That said, with an arresting and duly competent expression of cold savagery like The Well of Light Has Finally Dried (2006) under your belt, you hardly require innovation to win an audience. Unfortunately, their 7th album (if we're counting the Supreme Misanthropy MMVIII remake of their 2001 debut) Diktat Deliberi just never seems to capitalize on the raw talents of its creators, and left me a little too dry despite the absence of measurable flaws.

In other words, the major drawback I had here was the dearth of distinguished songwriting, not for the lack or a sense of variation, but simply because so few of the riffs possess me for more than a brief time, and there just wasn't anything calling me back to the experience. In terms of potent, destructive, blazing and abyss born production values, Blodsrit can be counted among acts like Marduk, 1349, Dark Funeral, Setherial and so forth, because they get a nice, bold grime to the guitars that never dwarfs the listener's ability to hear each of the razing, roiling note progressions (though they create less of the mindless blast fest associated with those bands). The drums provide the essential, storming battery of muscular double bass driving and bursts of hellfire excess that defines this niche, which hit its summit in the mid-90s but still inspires a metric ton of later groups. They'll also layer in a subtle, non-exclusionary folk feel thanks to the sparse acoustic guitars (as you'll hear in songs like "Skapelseförfall"), and combined with the light use of synths this brings about an atmospheric nostalgia for Bathory's magnum opus Blood Fire Death. The vocals are evoked through full-bodied, ferocious black snarls, but again there's just nothing distinct about them.

So what we're left with is a pretty stock black metal record, from a band who seemed strongest during the middle of the previous decade with Helveteshymner or The Well of Light Has Finally Dried. In terms of aesthetics, this sounds a lot like it looks, but doesn't exactly deliver on the occult beckons of the cool cover icon. The thing that kills me about a disc like this is that, for all my indifferent reaction, there's really nothing all that wrong with, or inherently bad about the music. It has a voluminous, oppressive airiness about it when the Swedes are cruising along at mid-pace, and the riffs are usually different enough from one another that it doesn't succumb to the endless cycle of frustrating repetition. The instruments are all in place, and the vocals sufficiently unfriendly and misanthropic, but I just couldn't find the carrot on the stick here. Possibly worth checking out if you're into similar sounds from bands like Ragnarok, (90s) Emperor or Enthroned, or just want a straight-up, no frills onslaught of well produced black metal, but if you're approaching Blodsrit for the first time, you'll get better results by starting earlier in their career.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://iloapp.blodsrit.org/blog/www?

Blodsrit - The Well of Light Has Finally Dried (2006)

One of the striking things about Blodsrit, and in particular this album, is that they eschew the warmer tones typical of the bigger Swedish black metal bands in lieu of a frost-tainted Norse style. They lack for none of the melodies of their countrymen, however, and The Well of Light Has Finally Dried is a majestic and nihilistic credit to its title. Cold and dreary, charging riffs accent their creepier, slower passages, think of sitting in the middle of a northern European woodland on a winter afternoon. Consider some of the members performed in death metal bands prior to this, it's an effectively grim offering, their fourth full-length.

"Illumnious Tu" spaces in with subtle guitar feedback ambience, polymorphing into a very cold but beautiful riff of evocative atmospheres. Naahz' extremely grim snarls create a dense wall of despair, and the song gives plenty of space to its mid-paced blasting charge riffs. "Into Nothingness" opens with a cold and flowing stream of speed plucking lavished in horrifically gorgeous chords. "Vid Grimnas Stränder" is one of my favorite tracks here, begins with a steady and subtle bass groove before the towering chords crash across, like waves of blackened blood over a marble bleak shore. "En Enslig Klagan" is a beautiful interlude with some hymnal and conversational samples beneath a steady clock ticking, fulfilling folk acoustics and some other sparse effects. This is offset by "Jord", one of the faster tracks here, but interspersing its blasting blasphemy with some interesting pauses between beats, and a Bathory-like mid paced verse. "Dödsraseri - den segervissa modern" is a somber and twisting. depressive track which closes the album slowly.

The Well of Light Has Finally Dried! It's a pretty brief album, clocking in at just under a half hour in length, but do black metal albums need to be much longer? Not to be effective. And this is effective. Grim and oft simplistic, it's tonal structures should be pleasing (or displeasing) to the fans of suicidal black metal. But the album also betrays a depth few of your average bedroom black metal acts can fathom, a sadness and glory and an awareness of the margins of the modern world. Many consider their previous effort Helveteshymner to be their strongest work. This album is slightly shorter, but I would consider it equally potent. Nice cover art, too, which of course immediately recalled Massive Attack's Mezzanine.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

http://www.blodsrit.se/