Black for Death: An Icelandic Odyssey Part II

I have no doubt that the first part of “An Icelandic Odyssey” has turned out to be a very bitter experience for me, Solefald is a band (or rather duo) that I have idolized for quite a long time many years ago when I discovered them. But after what happened to me with the “red part” of this odyssey I was very disappointed, however, my expectations took a turn when I heard the second part called Black for Death: An Icelandic Odyssey Part II and when I finished I said to myself: this is a big change.

The direction that was practically non-existent on the previous album is present here. Each song is connected and manages to generate that image of an epic journey where you can hear the bearded man from the group telling stories of battles and historical figures. The production is also similar to the previous album, but it is even more polished. Everything sounds clearer, even the guitars that still have that scratchy distortion. “Red for Fire + Black for Death” is an introduction that is quite in keeping with the album, as in the previous one, it starts off softly and grows over time until it explodes and becomes something more brutal, but at the same time epic. Even Cornelius sounds better on this album than on the previous one, his scratchy voice gives a rather wild and at times creepy touch to the music.

There are also short instrumental pieces here like “Underworld” which, unlike the other song “Bragi” from the other album, has more variety of sounds, more meaning on the album, it doesn’t bore you and it gives you that pause so you can prepare your imagination for the next songs. “Loki Trickster God” is a particular case, since its melody is far from the common denominator of this album, because it sounds “more oriental” and has a rather soft rhythm compared to the other songs, plus Garm from Ulver participates and his voice really gives a very distinctive touch to the song. Another thing that caught my attention on this album were the tracks “Lokasenna” that sound much more orchestrated, entertaining and fascinating, unlike the first part found on the previous album which is nothing more than a voice accompanied by rain noises and a canoe marching on the river.

Overall, this album not only manages to cover up all the flaws of the previous album, it also manages to surpass them by far and stand out as one of Solefald's most solid albums, because it is an album that invites the imagination and that really captivates you with its musical arrangements. If the "red part" left you very dissatisfied, your hope is immediately restored with the "black part" of this odyssey.

Red For Fire by Norwegian progressive duo Solefald was one of the most widely acclaimed black metal releases of 2005, and now they present its sequel Black For Death, concluding the saga of Icelandic skald (court poet) Bragi, banished from Reykjavík for his affair with the queen, and his outlaw wanderings in the wilderness, his inner struggles and encounters with creatures from Nordic mythology. (Incidentally, this narrative was written by Solefald’s vocalist Cornelius and has no connection to the historical poet Bragi Boddason, who lived in Sweden – Viking-age Iceland never had a monarchy.)

As the band stated when Red For Fire was released, "Solefald was experimenting when everybody was being true. Now that… we've pushed the experiment quite far already, we wanted Red For Fire and Black For Death to be our attempts at being true. This will be a true Nordic Viking Metal album." Well, yes and no – Solefald’s take on ‘truth’ is pretty experimental by most people’s standards.

‘Red For Fire, Black For Death’ opens with violin and cello before launching into a maelstrom of black metal guitar and drums, with a refrain of “deathlike silence” – surely a sly reference to the record label founded by the ill-fated Euronymous. Throughout the album, violin and cello do much of the work usually allotted to keyboards in this kind of symphonic black metal, and other unorthodox elements include the noir jazz sax of ‘Underworld’ and ‘Dark Waves Dying’, the Queen-like (no, honestly!) clean choral vocals of ‘Allfathers’, the baroque keyboards of ‘Necrodyssey’ and orchestral and spoken-word interludes.

The album’s strong narrative thrust reminded me of Bathory’s Blood On Ice, but musically the strongest resemblances are to Borknagar (unsurprising, as Solefald drummer Lazare is ex-Borknagar, and Garm of Ulver and Borknagar contributes vocals to ‘Loki Trickster God’), Arcturus, Peccatum or late Emperor. There’s plenty of metal in here, but Solefald make you work for it.

Black For Death is an ambitious, monumental opus demanding open-minded attention. Truth is not the only virtue.

This album contains the loveliness of the musical melodies and production of Red for Fire, and the more or less consistent storyline, but less of the musical continuity, which really lets the album down. A quarter of the tracks on this album are instrumentals or poems. It really ruins the pace, much like being stuck in some kind of musical traffic jam.

Aside from that, those instrumentals and poems are consistent with the overall narrative and aesthetic (despite the daring use of saxophone as was used on Sun I Call on Red for Fire, which again works surprisingly well). The actual songs have some truly wonderful moments, like Cornelius’ tortured voice on Queen in the Bay of Smoke, what I have heard being described as a rather Queen-like vibe on Allfathers, and Trickster G/Garm’s guest on Loki Trickster God, basically the same tune as White Frost Queen from Red for Fire, but beautifully reworked by Garm.

This is not necessarily a poor album, but it is somewhat limited when considered on its own merits. If you wish to purchase this album, buy Red for Fire first, then you can view the two albums as two parts of a great saga and excellent presentation.

The album, Black For Death (An Icelandic Odyssey Part II), by Solefad begins and ends in an epic blast of folk-reminiscent symphonic post-black energy. A combination of master craft poetry, epic songwriting, and amazing melodic and harsh vocals, makes this album a must-have for anyone interested in expanding their black metal tastes past the so called tr00 wave of Norwegian kult black metal.

The album begins with the amazing track, Red For Fire + Black For Death, which I have to comment on as the perfect beginning for the album. It conveys the amazing instrument manifestations of both the harsher traditional black metal feel as well as the elegant folk-sounding symphonic atmosphere. Though the pace may change to a lighter tone through the album, this track conveys the emotional intensity of the album perfectly.

Overall, the instrumentals are beautifully crafted to work in perfect union with the symphonic aspects and the vocals. The vocals themselves are beautiful, flowing seamlessly through the album in perfect harmony to the atmosphere being created.

The only thing that disappointed me about this album is that I heard it after I finalised my 2006 top ten albums list.

Everything that "Red For Fire" lacked (which wasn't much) this makes up for in spades: the production is beautifully clean and crisp, the classical instrument passages didn't sound at all out of place, and Cornelius' croaking vocals (some of my favourite black metal vocals ever) have developed to their pinnacle.

The album starts off with a short interlude played on a violin, while the drumming begins in the background and eventually takes over, quickly turning the song into a pulverising affair. This is only a taste of things to come.

For some years Solefald have been on the cutting edge of social commentary in music, viciously attacking materialism and empty culture as early as the mid-nineties. Now that it has once again become "cool" to attack the mainstream (a paradox if ever there was one) Solefald have diverged from this path and gone in for a mythology-based set of concept albums, and what a pair of albums they are!

The album loses two per cent from me because of the positioning of the "Lokasenna" tracks. On "Red For Fire", an extract of the epic poem "Lokasenna" appeared as the final track, spoken by Cornelius (presumably) in the original Icelandic, with wind and waves in the background. And this was a good thing. Five minutes or so of Cornelius' pleasantly deep voice speaking a beautifully guttural language was very calming. On "Black For Death", unfortunately, two further extracts were put on the album, not at the end, which would have been fine, but as the seventh and penultimate tracks, which kind of break up the album instead of complementing it.

Overall, however, an admirable offering. Standout tracks include "Queen In The Bay Of Smoke" and "Sagateller".