Sólstafir - Svartir Sandar (2011)

It won't come as a shock to anyone that Iceland's Sólstafir have by this time severed almost all connections to their black metallic roots, seeking to further themselves in the psychedelic, airy post-rock that their gloomy masterwork Köld first manifest. Gone are the snarling, tremolo patterns and aggressive tendencies, and with their new double album Svartir Sandar, gone even is the absolute bleakness of that last album. Pretty much the entire core of the band remains, so it's not as if there were some disagreement and a few of the members suddenly hijacked the band's direction: this is the sound the band will likely continue until further stages of evolution have manifest. As for Svartir Sandar, the problem isn't so much that the music has taken a dip in quality, but that there's just a little too much of it, and not all of these creations are equally poignant or memorable.

There aren't enormous differences across the discs in content, and with a total of about 78-79 minutes of music, I'm wondering why they couldn't have just squeezed it onto one. Surely this would have proven less expensive? At any rate, the musical content is a lot like Köld: desperate swells of driving post-rock angst alternated with periods of spacey, open calm. Vocalist Aðalbjörn Tryggvason is mildly more intense this time out, with an angry bark to his style that reminds me of the shouting parts form the old Fugazi post-hardcore records. Simple, distorted bass lines create a substrate of leaden grooves while the guitars are dowsed in reverb or other effects and left to simmer and settle atmospherically, or escalate into explosions of shoegazing majesty as in the thundering bridge of "Ljós í Stormi" or the title cut. There are a handful of tracks which might seem 'excessive' in duration (10 minutes or more), but thankfully these don't drone on endlessly under any burden of monotony.

What saves the experience from ever growing stagnant is the amount of texture and variation on exhibition. While a number of guitar melodies and bass lines might utilized familiar sounding patterns, they are approached with such a beautiful, ailing breadth that they can't help but to feel fresh upon the ears. The band has incorporated some lofty, angelic female vocals on a number of tracks which are breathtaking, and there are also electronic beats and pianos (as in the song "Kukl") which feel resplendent against the music's snowy late afternoon glow. There aren't many moments on the album which would feel 'heavy' from a metal context, but that's not to say the band don't ramp up the intensity where it suits them; i.e. the screams cutting through "Þín Orð" or the jarring, accessible discord inclement to "Sjúki Skugginn"'s bad weather. There's also a bit of the Cult-like rock and roll aesthetic from the last record, but if feels more heavily confined to the second disc tracks like the instrumental finale "Draumfari".

All told, there's much to experience here, and what Sólstafir might lack for in the complexity of their earlier material they compensate for with volume and emotional contrast. That's not to say that Svartir Sandar feels as cohesive or astonishing as its predecessor: it runs on too long, and there are certainly moments in which the mind begins to wander AWAY from the soaring and soothing sonic landscapes and into thoughts of listening to something else instead (particularly true of longer pieces). The production is beautiful here, delivered with bruising clarity, and fans of Köld will not be heavily disappointed by the music or the lovely artwork panels. The album might also appeal to fanatics of other aerial post-rock acts, and should earn them due comparisons as a more 'rock-fueled' variant to their popular countrymen Sigur Rós.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.solstafir.net/

Sólstafir - Til Valhallar EP (1996)

Newer listeners, whose entrance to the Sólstafir sound begins at the amazing Köld, might be quite perplexed if their curiosity takes them back through the years, for the amazing atmospherics the band is conjuring today are far removed from their primitive origins. Til Valhallar was the band's first formal release, an EP boasting 6 tracks of raw and aggressive black metal with only the barest hint at the voluminous, swelling guitars and terse atmosphere of future offerings. Yet, if listening through their work chronologically, one would not find it so difficult to trace a line through the albums and notice a very natural, positive trend to their evolution.

Sólstafir have always been a different band, and though the writing here fits every familiar definition of the 'black metal' medium, there are some subtle differences in texture and approach. These could be conscious decisions, or these could be cultural and regional (there has always been something to the band's that simply howls of their homeland) influences. For one, there is a noticeable punk and post-punk taste to the riffing. Though it doesn't neglect the speed and fury of the band's metallic kin, the raw fervor feels wild and uncaged. Aðalbjörn Tryggvason's, while similar in tormented tone to something like Burzum, also carry this off the hinge feeling that recalls screamy underground punk and hardcore music. There is also an influence for moody folk, delivered through the band's streaming, melodic acoustics. The tin of the drums and the popping bass really carry the taint of these outside influences into the Viking themes, and Til Valhallar is rather something to behold in its brighter moments.

The surly and beautiful sample of a folk singer inaugurates "Ásareiðin", which then proceeds through a mid-paced shuffle under the surging, buzzing guitar lines. While the band is raw as fuck, there is a melodic, sovereign grace carried through the chords which betrays the rather simple and straight forward barking of the vocals. A synth drops in briefly for the bridge, to highlight a simple rock chord pattern, before the track once again enters its rapid fire verse. The title track "Til Valhallar" opens with a churning, post-punkish guitar scape, like an Icelandic Sonic Youth, over the driving drum rhythm and the bloodied ice. Again, the track breaks for a mellower bridge segment, in which the guitars soar, but the track is really made interesting through the bass and drumming. "Dauðraríkið" is an even more impressive song than either of them, for it swells with sadness, turbulent and raw double kick hammering, and carries more of a Viking feel. The bass thunders, the guitars are ripping like a longship across the cold sands of the shore, but what really shines is the gloomy, psychedelic acoustic breakdown, that abruptly blasts forth once again into the chaos. "Hovudlausn" is an instrumental piece that closes out the original release of the EP, with acoustic guitars flowing into some heavier chords like the first waves of spring that break through the ice on the North ocean surface.

The re-release of the EP also contains two bonus tracks. The grungy, aggressive "Huldulandið" once again features the punkish angst, while the "Í Helli Pólýfemosar" is a morbid, crawling piece which uses several vocals in tangent to create an unnerving effect. Here, Tryggvason straightens out his vocals to a more Viking-like level, and then astride there are another dub of deeper vocals which feel like they are talking along. The track also breaks out into a straight, crunchy punk rhythm. It's very interesting, in fact the most curious piece on this release, and in some ways this also best foreshadows the band's later progression.

So, while Sólstafir's sound was not nearly at the range of moody post-rock influence it currently dispenses, there has always been something tweaked, something strange about the band. This was a grim and wondrous introduction to a band that was, both geographically and pscychologically, left of the scene ongoing in mainland Scandinavia. I'm not entirely enamored of it, but I certainly appreciate the ground that this unsusual act has and will travel.

Highlights: Dauðraríkið, Í Helli Pólýfemosar

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/solstafir

Sólstafir - Köld (2009)

Arguably the premier metal band from Iceland, Sólstafir have come quite a ways from their pagan black/Viking metal roots. So far that any resemblance between Köld and their earlier releases has become marginalized, or merely thematic. They retain the cold core of their sound, that into which the imagination carves endless white landscapes and blowing winds, but this is packaged into haunting, angst-fueled post-rock, or shall I say post-black metal, or who cares.

When the result is this beautiful, there is little cause for complaint.

Köld is an album of glowering peaks and depressive valleys, where the geologic blood of the band's homeland can clearly be heard to run through every selection of phrase and tone. Eight tracks, most of which check in above the 8 minute mark, create a compelling and thorough journey through the (deceptively) empty and pale spaces of the musicians' environment. Instrumental "78 Days in the Desert" swells as its layered, shoegazing chords and subtle yet thundering percussion strike out across the wastes. "Köld" is just a wall of power, chords cutting the ice and Aðalbjörn Tryggvason's wandering vocals begin their tortured poetic delights. "Pale Rider" is a more harmonic vision, yet shares many of the same qualities: the simple yet soaring guitars, and some of the most aggressive vocals on the album. "She Destroys Again" may begin with some simple, folk/blues guitars ringing in a glistening distortion, but it picks up quite nicely. "Necrologue" is a gloomy piece, with calmer vocals and a series of acoustic chords lavishing the omni-present, looming bass. "World Void of Souls" is instrumental post-rock save for some spoken word. "Love is the Devil (and I Am in Love)" has some nice gothic hard rock sensibilities, imagine if The Cult tried their hand at a more gothic Finnish metal sound successfully. The beautiful and tranquil "Goddess of the Ages" closes off the record lovingly.

I admire the production of the album because it perfectly captures the many layers of emotion, but maintains a raw edge (similar to previous albums). All instruments sound fantastic. The drums are suitably tinny; the guitars echo through the gray and white clouds of the arctic vista; the vocals are clear yet mysterious. And when it needs to, the bass thunders through.

You do not hear an album like this every day. Though their material has always hinted at distinction; Sólstafir have evolved into something truly unique with this. I've heard others describe this band as the 'metal' Sigur Ros, and with Köld you can actually, sort of feel this bond between sonic architecture and a climatic, geographic influence. Whatever compelled this sound, I do hope it continues, because this is a brilliant album, joyous and haunting and immortal. It is easily the finest hour yet for Sólstafir, and I'd heartily recommend this to any fand of post-rock, or mellow post-black metal, even though it's obviously much more...

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/solstafir