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Valdur > Valdur > Reviews > Wargnattallfihrr
Valdur - Valdur

Unique USBM - 80%

Wargnattallfihrr, July 7th, 2010

Valdur are living proof of the fact that USBM is in no need to hide itself in the shadows of insignificance: They are a powerful band with a lot of negative energy and tons of good ideas, even more – Valdur have developed a unique style.

This album we have right here contains songs of the early stage of the band, which has to be pointed out, for the band has evolved it’s style into playing a more melodic and tremolo-based sound. Even though this old material slightly differs from the latterly described, it is not for the music’s bad.

Within this release you can find a more raw and straight approach to black metal than in more recent interpretations, even than in most USBM releases anyway. Valdur have no need for a garage-like sound for creating the image of a powerful force within the earth destroying all human life in the mind’s eye. Heavily produced guitars are in a perfect flow with the surging drums. A broad wall of sound rises with the very first song and is kept up to the last second. Many bands would have met problems in combining this idea of black metal with captivating song structures because of the inevitably following rawness of the music. Valdur instead add quite subtle melodies and interlace them in their brutal sound without drifting to wimpy melodic soundscapes of the Swedish approach, which they can be compared to.

A special reference to the raging vocals: Unlike most vocalists in the rather aggressive styles of black metal, Thor’s vocals tend to be more suicidal and auto-aggressive. Deeply aspirated, harshly carked or hauntingly howled they transport the wish to kill the world including the own person. Mostly you find those “you weak creations of god will die while we’ll reside on hells thrones”-declarations, but here a deep knowledge of the own mortality comes to light and mixes itself with the wish for the world to die.

Valdur are the lesser known yet musically better band of the split with “Lightning Swords of Death” and they deserve some attention by the underground, for their intentions are not compatible with the wide metal-public. Uniqueness, rawness and an interesting concept make them worth a listen. Absolutely recommended.