Når mening forsvinder

I can’t help it. Every time I encounter a studio album that’s extremely long or features longer songwriting than usual, I often get curious to know what’s inside it. Maybe the musicians behind it thought themselves very inspired, had specific ambitious or delusions of grandeur? In any case, this album is one of such releases that I am actually interested to listen often even if there’s nothing particular behind it. 85 minutes for 6 tracks, all over 11 minutes and one reaching 20? That’s thinking big, man, even by depressive black metal standard. Besides, even if you try to find any information about this solo project from Denmark, you won’t find any: Acedi was a solo project of an individual named Nils Brem, who now plays with Arkæon, Grifteskymfning and Draug, while this one has been abandoned since 2012. Three demos and two albums, including self-titled one, stand as the only testimony of its activity, and in that regard, the first one, 2011’s Når mening forsvinder, is the slog I’m talking about.

Clocking double the length of a normal album, reaching the duration of two, this album is a perfect example of “early Hypothermia clone” through and through, as it delves deep into slow, melodic but also sonically mournful black metal with extended chording, overdubs and settling for the same tempos for the tracks’ whole duration. Agonizing, half-growled vocals reveal no discernible lyrics, and the songwriting revolves over the same, slow-tempo sustained arpeggios and chiming chording for every song. Judging by the results, the album seems recorded analogically, with trebly, highly distorted guitars pushed front in the mixing, traces of acoustic guitar, violin leads pop through and through, several sections are based on nothing more than clean guitar and feedback, the bass and the drums lack definition and sound distant, reflecting the album’s claustrophobic nature. Still, the mood of the album seems more lazy, somnolent and nostalgic than sad, depressive or even suicidal: rhythms stick to 4/4 dirges through and through, with very little variation in dynamics or arrangements.

Highlighting particular songs is pretty hard, as the riffs, while embracing many beats and being longer than the average repetition so common in the genre, revolve over the same D/E-minor chords and droning intervals over and over, to the point changes are barely perceptible even when they’re present. Some, like Monotonisk evighed, feature more feedback than others and are even longer. If I’d choose one for a newcomer, I’d say to try first with the second one, Sakramenter af lykke, whose opening riff is pretty recognizable and reveals much of the project’s mood nature. I can also stick out the second half of the third one, Når støvet kvæler det som før var til, with a D-major glorious riff that sounds almost like a small beacon of hope found in an endless walk into a dark tunnel.

As said before, this album is heavily indebted to the slow, creepy-ballad style of Hypothermia, Nocturnal Depression, Trist and the most melodic Xasthur, and like many of them, sounds much closer to post-rock/post-punk than actual black metal. Also, even within the sub-niche’s very underground, obscure lack of popularity, Acedi is even more unknown by most metal enthusiasts, and you’ll barely be able to find this album anywhere on YouTube. Hat it been released years before than its ultimate date of publication (even a decade, dare to say), this album would have been considered a manifest of depressive black metal’s most isolationist stance, but it didn’t turn out to be the case. That’s a shame, because I prefer it to some of the genre’s most renowned releases, including early Hypothermia: at the same time, I realize it must take much courage to listen to this lethargic, same-y stuff over and over without any distraction.