Besvärtade strofer

Always interested to check out something out of the ordinary, Metal Archives' description of LIK as 'occult black rock' appealed to me greatly, so I decided to check it out. I had no previous experience with the band, nor with sister bands Armagedda or Lönndom, so I had no idea what to expect.

The album starts out and ends with quite clean, minimalistically instrumentated pieces utilising just bass, guitar, synth and vocals. The melodies contained herein sound unfamiliar and surreal, but in a very alluring way. The bass and guitar are played very soulfully, which gives an impression of sincerity. It sounds melancholic and very heartfelt. Especially the closing track, "Begravd", is a very desolate-sounding and very beautiful piece of music.

The four songs in between the in- and outro prove exactly why this is categorized as 'occult black rock'. Where you could call bands like Carpathian Forest or perhaps Svartsyn rock-influenced black metal, this sounds exactly the other way around. Where rock and rock-influenced black metal bands are often on the catchy side, LIK is not. This is where the 'occult' part comes into play: the music is quite atmospheric and indeed does sound occult instead of catchy. This effect is mostly created by its speed (or rather, its lack thereof) and the use of cleaner guitar lines and background synths over the slow-ish grumble of the distorted guitar and bass, to transfer the atmosphere of the pro- and epilogue onto the black metal songs.

Besvärtade Strofer was created out of very simple rhythms, riffs and melodies, which together make for a very interesting, dreary sound. The album remains more or less mid-tempo from beginning to end and never really climaxes, unless you count the double-bass part towards the end of Åkallelse, the only of the six tracks which has some degree of speed. Although they do incorporate nice and well-executed little fills, the drums are very basic throughout, and sometimes even decidedly untight, especially at transitions between different rhythms. This is a bit of a pity, but not a very big hindrance. Graav is not a drummer by default, so I can overlook this fact; besides, part of the charm of this album is its lack of tightness. Somehow, in a way I don't quite understand myself, this technical shakiness only adds to the chemistry between the instruments. Graav's vocals uphold the mood excellently through restrained, somewhat low-pitched black metal rasps and a clean, dramatic voice not unlike that of master Fenriz in Isengard. In fact, the music on this album reminds of a non-folky Isengard, as well as Infernum.

My favourite track on Besvärtade Strofer is still the outro, Begravd. But this is not because the 'actual' songs are inferior! Not a single song gets boring or sounds out of place. There hangs a crude and twisted air of melancholic beauty and completeness over the entire album, and I am very glad I discovered it. Thank you, Metal Archives.