Venenum Scorpionis

Cold is the winter serpents howl with ancient Swedish forms of blackened ritual weighing across my cracking frailties as if stung in sternum by Scorpius’ tail towards the heart of deleterious Orion. As needle pricking skin and scalpel’d orifice debrided of frozen decay a gory kiss thaws righteous rot, melts crushed capillary and surfaced sinew unto darkly red and blued failing flesh bleached by the storm of howling death. All cessation’s putrid feast thrives in chaotically piled crystalline clumps of men belittled by our wretchedly feeble adaptations. Penance to Zeus from indignant followers, mortals no longer cease prideful ways with no fear of the poison sting of the scorpion in the sky. Deaf to natural guide and cursed by moronic masterminded civilization no death is more welcome than the chilling light of he, the inebriated fire whirler, he the horned god cast into abyss of snow and crevice of ice. We of greed, the disciples of nothing, are sulking callous apes in acceptance of prescribed order; Twisted faceless bodies taunting one another with discolored bile and unimaginative violence in warmly infectious pits of mucosal feces and raw bacterial rage. May frost be the slowly suffered plague of eternity, a perfect preservative for the homogenized, self-inflicted monstrosities of man. This pestilential blast of ice needle and black flame shocking the mind into fear and torpor is the active embodiment of the rasping wolfen breath of svenske Luciferian occult melodic black metal mainstays Grafvitnir. With the presentation of their sixth full-length the Stockholm trio reach a new golden high, a fatal lightning strike upon the temple for the melodic black metal devout.

In other words, the Stockholm based project persists unhinged but unchanged beyond some increase in melodic focus today. So much of what I’d said when reviewing ‘Keys to the Mysteries Beyond’ (2017) is still relevant. The spirit of 1995 is ancient flame alight through memories of unholiness, that of ‘Storm of the Lights Bane’ and adjacent classics from Abigor, Marduk and Thy Primordial who would attack brutally while forming within the earliest waves of Swedish melodic black metal before cloying symphonic affect and effeminate guitar hero worship would dissipate the sub-genres power into meaningless thinness. This classic feeling and melodic focus is moon that would cause Grafvitnir to howl, spit flame, and riff under the gaze of the watchful eye of the glorious dead. Assumed guitarist Niantiel (Cursed 13, ex-Grá) brings composition thoughtfully melodic as it is characteristically relentless on what is an eight level descent into plutonian depths, a narrative heralding the dark arts of the underworld and beyond. Though Grafvitnir holds fast to their modus previous the ferality of ‘Venenum Scorpionis’ expresses with enhanced signature, offering a defining moment and escalating plateau for the projects discography that does not appear to bow to any pressures not self-applied.

Refined tremolo-picked melodies and a great gasping chamber of black metal rasp is absolutely enough to draw me into a melodic black metal album and hold my attention. I am just enough of a die-hard fan of the 90’s pre-symphonic era (Scandinavian or otherwise) that this sort of record is magnetic and thrilling no matter how many times I hear it. What then serves as the distinguishing factor between love and hatred frankly comes from the ‘riff’ values and how each expresses a melody. Many bands suggest melodic style and conjure ancient sound but few successfully complete any multi-arcing grandiose melodic statement without sputtering into trope. Because it arrives upon a Sacramentum level of quality, especially in terms of drum performance, ‘Venenum Scorpionis’ can be considered a special record for sub-genre specific fandom. It will read as 90’s styled Scandinavian black metal to the less specific black metal crowd with potential for meaningless surface-level examination, without a patient listen it will no doubt suggest itself as rote until proving otherwise. I felt this was also the case with ‘Keys to the Mysteries Beyond’ and it can’t be helped, Grafvitnir express as a traditional black metal band in terms of second wave Swedish black metal, melodic black metal, and their occult black metal sensibilities otherwise.

It becomes difficult to draw the line between a very good example of a sub-genre that I like and a lasting experience I might return to over the years, at least without more than a months analysis of a piece. My thoughts are at least formed enough that I can say I generally return to a band like Grafvitnir as often as I might Naglfar or Thy Primordial. That is to say that they will be a part of a reinforcing binge incited by a new melodic black metal release or a return to some old favorites. To love a piece of music as periphery enforcement is to both admit its brick-like status within a wall of fandom but also to appreciate the marvelous above the mediocre which I wouldn’t return to unless scouring the pile for educational purposes. ‘Venenum Scorpionis’ is -the- record from Grafvitnir I would now use to introduce new listeners to their growing discography, it is spacious and grand in its expression a wild but classicist melodic black metal example that is distinctly Swedish in tradition. As such I can highly recommend it as reinforcement for a collection of such things rather than a defining standard or newly forged left hand path. Highly recommended. For preview I would suggest the Necrophobic-esque “Ormeld” as an introduction, though the opener “Wolf of the Eclipse” is equally stunning; Beyond that point “Nocturnal Sun” felt like a beautiful point of entry for the ‘Far Away From the Sun’ addicted.

Attribution: https://grizzlybutts.com/2019/03/05/grafvitnir-venenum-scorpionis-2019-review/

A band that took me by surprise with their 2017 release was Swedish melodic black metal act Grafvitnir. I’d never heard of them before their fifth album release but it was a superb offering to the Swedish black metal of old and with that release I now had the band on my radar. Fast forward to 2019 and the trio has now released their sixth album called Venenum Scorpionis via the ever so great Carnal Records. One thing worth noting on the line-up is Niantiel is in it, who has a past with Grá and is currently also in Cursed 13. Grá and Cursed 13 shares most of it’s members and are lead by the dark star Heljarmadr (Dark Funeral, Domgård, Grá, Cursed 13).

Venenum Scorpionis picks of right where Keys to the Mysteries Beyond left off and offers us 37 minutes of pure, cold black metal. They make no secret that this is yet another homage to the early Swedish black metal scene, great as it is. If you liked their old albums, actually scratch that, if you even like old school black metal then this will be right up your dark alley. Be it Dissection, Naglfar, Valkyrja, Funeral Mist or the new blood Blood of Serpents that’s your poison then you should know of Grafvitnir, if you don’t it’s time to repent. One thing I praised Grafvitnir for before was their use of Swedish lyrics on “Vargavinter”, here they offer one more with the track “Ormeld” and I still wish they would write even more as their songwriting in Swedish gives me chills to be honest.

There aren’t really much differences from Keys to the Mysteries Beyond and Venenum Scorpionis, for the good and bad. As I stated before you know exactly what you get from Grafvitnir and if you’ve enjoyed their previous efforts then you will have a good time with this too. It’s a band that has found their sound and is sticking by it, I for one think this is one of the best underground black metal bands in Sweden right now so I say keep it up! The two main differences for me personally is that I enjoy the songwriting more on Venenum Scorpionis but I thought Keys to the Mysteries Beyond had more melodic and atmospheric sides to it which speaks to me more in the long run. Each to their own though and I advise you to give both a listen to compare. I do need to add the instrumental track “I nattens mantel svept” is beautiful, bringing that medieval acoustic flare and is a nice ice breaker that weirdly enough fits into the rest of the album. Will be interested to see which album I will get back to the most down the road but fact is they are both great and black metal fans have another sweet dark offering given to them early this year!

Originally written for The Metal Gamer