Ramnens ferd

It's sort of strange how rose-tinted goggles work. In recent years, you get people going nuts for just about any and every death metal release that ever saw magnetic tape before 1996 or so, every last me-too demo or sinking-ship label release that never got promoted properly gets hailed as some hidden gem of the underground, with very little filter for quality. However, the same effect hasn't really quite hit the total saturation point in black metal, even for prime second-wave era stuff from Norway itself. Take Fimbul, for example. Sole member Ramn put out these two demos in 1995, but until recently I had never even heard of this project, and it seems like there's very little recognition for the band in general. Maybe I, too, am just being guilty of that same "I found this old thing that no one else has heard or remembers and it's really great!" syndrome, but while this isn't quite on the level of some of the giants of that era, it is definitely a really enjoyable little slice of Norse black metal that's sure to please any aficionado of the era.

The first four tracks come from the earlier Vinterland demo. After an eerie, vampire-castle keyboard intro, then a bit of an aggressive chordy, then-contemporary Darkthrone-ish start to the first song, we see things shift gears into the band's main mode of expression. Most of riffing here is made up of lurching torrents of tremolo, designed to be more on the dark, disturbing side of the icy crevasse rather than the more melodic, triumphant side of things. That's not to say that Ramn has no ear for melodies - that certainly shines through in the interlude bits especially, which actually helps to emphasize just how purposefully ugly the guitar bits during the more standard sections are.

After another couple of synthstrumentals (one closing out the Vinterland demo tracks and another serving as intro for the Det Siste Slaget material), the focus shifts to the longer, more ambitious tracks from that later demo. Though these songs were released only about eight months after Vinterland, it's clear to me that Ramn had his sights set on bigger targets. The general approach stays the same: blizzards of wrong-sounding chords and intervals that create a hell of a lot of tension always on the brink of release. However, these songs get a leg up over the Vinterland material by way of resolving some of those tense riffs by shifting to more overtly sorrowful, emotional chord choices at the ends of riff cycles. Unfortunately, the production just slightly drops off for this material, making it sometimes a bit of a struggle to hear precisely how melodies are being used to augment the bleakness. There are even keys used within the context of the songs themselves here, which get a bit lost in the mix as well, especially due to the really loud bass drums, but the audio never really drops below "typical demo of the era" quality, so it really comes off as more of a slight issue preventing maximum enjoyment than it does as some egregiously underproduced crapfest.

One thing that is definitely identifiable as a issue that could use improving are the vocals. Given the mix it's sort of hard to tell whether they're just poorly recorded/utilized or if Ramn just wasn't that strong of a vocalist, but mostly they just sort of croak along in the background without much care taken to place them in and around the music in a very symbiotic way. More than anything else on these demos, those stick out as something that could have been improved either with time or, more likely, by collaboration with other musicians. Unfortunately for him, Ramn seemed to work in relative isolation in some fjord a ways south of Bergen, so quite possibly had no other choice but to do everything himself. As the icy swells of the ten-minute synth closer "Ramnens Ferd" slide out of my speakers like a glacier creeping into the sea, I can't help but wonder what could have resulted from Ramn working together with other likeminded folks of the day.

So is this a hidden gem, due to be unburied and washed and loved by all? Probably not, but it's definitely a neat little compilation of some solid demo material that puts an interesting spin on the sound of a time and place that has resonated so powerfully throughout the underground for so long now. Worthy of your time and attention, at least, if not your love.