Drifting Through the Void

Svarti Loghin are certainly not subtle about their intentions, as they titled their debut album Empty World and then had to go and follow up with a Drifting Through the Void. With all this evidence at hand, it doesn't take a huge leap in logic to assume that the band will be playing some cold, depressive black or folk metal, and this is exactly what they do. Empty World was one of the more generic offerings out of this style that I've ever heard, with very simple, repetitious riffing, typical tortured black metal rasps ala Burzum or Weakling, and glints of rustic folk in there, but it was still a fairly soothing effort for someone in the right environment to listen, like an autumn evening before the frost sets in.

Drifting Through the Void is just as effortless an album title, but here the band have gone on a limb to incorporate a more diverse vocal palette, mixing the expected snarling black despair with a style that sounds like a subdued Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. This approach does nothing for me whatsoever, and very quickly gets lost in the midst of the bright, drifting guitars. I realize the point of such vocals are often to lose themselves, since this is a band all over such cliches, but I really feel they come off hammy and weak compared to the rest of the album. The harsh vocals are also nothing special, they have no character or distinction above a few score other bands in this scene, and I never once felt a true pang of longing or depression despite all attempts.

Of course, the muted, bland singing would be forgiven in short order if the music had a lot to offer, but it simply sounds like another post-rock band influenced by college indie and radio arena rock bands from the 90s like Hootie & the Blowfish, the awful Pearl Jam albums beyond the first two, and some repetitious, melodic black metal without a single interesting guitar riff in sight. The way the band layers the clean, plucking sound with the more distorted tones might seem like something unique, but unfortunately when it comes to note selection there is nothing but chord progressions that took under a moment to compose, and extremely dull clean guitars that resonate above them. Seriously, I was not once surprised throughout the 47 minute playtime, not even when subtle organ tones would evaporate across the landscape, as in the best song here, "Bury My Heart in these Starlit Waters".

There is very little aspiration here to create anything other than a somber, predictable escape through falling leaves and into the scattered interstellar debris beyond our daily lives, and it really shows through the songwriting. The melodies have all been created before by every indie band desperately attempting to ape The Cure or Modern English, and an overwhelming mass of quickly forgotten crap shoegazer bands who couldn't live up to the legacy of Catherine Wheel or Lush if they copped a fake accent and plagiarized Slowdive songs. The lyrics are mediocre at best, though they effectively convey the feeling of celestial bodies personified as human spirits, or vice versa, which would make sense for the concept. The cover of "Planet Caravan" stands out only because it's such a better song than anything Svarti Loghin could come up with themselves, and the vocals sound a little less like a hack of Vedder. Hardly grounds to rush out and acquire this album.

I didn't mind Svarti Loghin's debut, but Drifting Through the Void is just more of the same, sans the mild immersion I felt for its predecessor. I found that the riffs were simply too samey and boring to serve me in any capacity aside from gardening, and even then I'd rather listen to one of a thousand other acts. I felt like I was staring at the flat-line on some hospital meter through almost the entire experience, just waiting for a pulse to evacuate me from the album's numbing plane of existence. I wouldn't shoot heroin to this, I wouldn't listen to it during an October drive through the Northeast backroads, and the only depression or melancholy it really conveys is that some people actually think this is 'deep' or impressive.

Surely this band can dig a lot deeper for better results, and in fact, so can you.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I had been advised by a series of fellow black metal fans , some of which I consider good friends, to pick this album up and having listened to a number of them describe it as the “album of the year”, I knew I would eventually surrender to the hype and indulge in some fine art with this eclectic sophomore. Although it’s far too early to start thinking about my personal favourites from the year 2010, I imagine that this divine piece of music will be in or around my top 10. Before listening to ‘Drifting Through The Void’, I had never been a big fan, or a fan at all, of the Swedish foursome, Svarti Loghin -- though, as I understand, only three of them are credited as performing on the album in the additional information (not sure why that is since Lipman provides the clean vocals and possibly some guitar work). I knew of them for several years previous to finally listening to them, but never in my wildest dreams would I have expected to find what I had found on this potentially ground breaking record. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, with the right amount of publicity, this record could go on to influence a new generation of black metal musicians into doing similar things and that involves incorporating genres of music we wouldn’t normally associate with metal, let alone black metal.

Though incorporating post-rock into black metal is nothing new, with this merger becoming a recent trend in the scene, fusing it with alternative rock, psychedelic rock from the 60’s and even country music, yes, that’s right, country music, is definitely an abnormal prospect. To some, this may even be somewhat intimidating. It’s relatively easy to fuse outside factors into black metal, but it’s incredibly difficult to do this well and, thankfully, given the talents behind the scenes, Svarti Loghin have produced a stellar affair somewhat akin to their debut, but the band have chosen to mostly tread new grounds by indulging in a spot of clean instrumentation, including clean vocals, a attribute featuring on a Svarti Loghin record for the very first time. As well as this, the sophomore also features guest appearances from the likes of depressive icon Kim Carlsson, the founder of idolised Swedish act Hypothermia. His vocal performance on the song ‘Odelagd Framtid’ is testament to the adaptability of Svarti Loghin because his tortured vocals fit superbly into the atmosphere of the band. I read in an interview that Kim provided vocals for the band on their first, and only, live performance.

According to the band themselves, the show was a hit and has convinced them to look at possibly playing live again in the future. Obviously, this shows us, the listener, that Kim is already accustomed to Svarti Loghin’s sound and is adept at providing a vocal base for the song he features on. He does well on the song, providing a certain amount of pain and sorrow in his performance that was probably missing from S.L’s performance on the debut. Kim, what with being apart of depressive black metal bands like Hypothermia and Life Is Pain, is a dab hand at tapping into a source of desolation which suit’s the more repetitive side of Svarti Loghin, which features generously on the song he performs on. The repetitive side is bombastic and likeable, despite its connotations to all things negative. The addition of Kim is a healthy choice and smart thinking on the part of the band. Not only will his reputation boost the appeal of the new album, but he also features to rapturous applause because, no matter what anybody says, he is a prominent figure in the sub-genre for a reason.

With songs like this sounding similar to the older style of the band we could be forgiven for expecting an affair without any source of originality when it comes to deviated and evolving from the debut, but we’d be gravely mistaken as this album does, in actual fact, feature splendid amounts of experimentation and innovation, particularly in the form of the clean vocals, provided stunningly by Lipman and not S.L. -- the bands regular vocalist. Lipman’s services provide ample opportunity for the reviewer to analyse the possible influences behind the band, but having read an interview with the musicians, they say Lipman’s clean vocals were inspired by Pearl Jam. I myself hear a touch of Dax Riggs (Agents of Oblivion and, most notably, Acid Bath guitarist and vocalist) in the vocals, though they’re less domineering and not as deep as his approach. They’re very mellow and suit the cleaner sections of instrumentation wonderfully. Songs like the self-titled one feature the clean vocals prominently and in a position of influence. The vocals, as well as the acoustics, provide the band with a new, fresh sound that definitely takes inspiration from an outside force, such as country and various forms of rock.

Again, the song writing shows that the band are both adventurous and daring in their occasional displays of avant-gardé experimentation. The bass, once again, is fantastic. Not only as a supporting instrument, but also as a leader within the soundscapes. The structures of the songs have been, and needed to be, rebuilt in order to accommodate the new features, such as clean vocals and acoustics (though these elements do also appear alongside the older characteristics, such as screamed vocals, distorted guitars and edgy percussion) and even an appearance by Lipman on the harmonica. Hopefully, this will give you, the reader, an indication of how much Svarti Loghin have transformed over the course of two years. Understandably, some of their previous sound has remained intact from the debut, though only in places, but the extra added delight of the quirky experimentation in the form of the clean vocals, acoustics and unusual appearance of the harmonica is like that a beer guzzler receives at 2-for-1 night at the latest hip-n-trendy bar. The Swedes have hit the nail on the head here and produced a stunning performance on one of 2010’s best efforts thus far.