Den onda pesten

Hello everybody, this is Varg Vikernes speaking. You all surely know my criminal past. To call me a confused mind would be a pretty friendly description. But, haha, nevertheless I have influenced legions of black metal musicians. The dudes behind Svartkraft from Finland are among them. However, second haha, to be influenced does not mean to be skilful. Their opener has a playtime of twelve minutes, it is almost completely lame and wants to be hypnotic, but it cannot raise its head out of the mud of mediocrity. Even the keyboard effects are borrowed from my ambient numbers, third haha. I cannot tell you more about the missing qualities of this overlong tranquilizer, because I fell asleep after three minutes. And honestly speaking, life is too short to listen to expressionless music, especially after having lost 15 years in this uncomfortable inn in rainy Bergen, Norway. That's why I leave now. Let Felix do the rest.

Okay, I don't know why Varg appeared here, but I do not beg to differ. The opener - and the fourth track as well - copies Burzum miserably, the second track is powerless, too. The closer wantsto generate a weird atmosphere due to its strange keyboards, but it just sounds like Carpathian Forest playing in a low pub at midnight after 48 hours without sleep. Svartkraft's debut bleeds from many wounds, the feeble snare sound is just one of them. The entire production cannot add an individual note, it lacks clarity and pressure. The vocals sound almost grotesque, pretty exaggerated. Aggravating the situation, the song-writing fails to set interesting impulses. The slow-moving songs do not have the necessary riffs or melodies that repetitive pieces need in order to be effective. The faster tracks, for example "Liv i ruiner", sound as simple as Teutonic krautrock from the mid-seventies which has been translated into black metal. The fifth track is the first, the last and the only one that transports rawness and blackness in an appropriate manner. It reminds of the approach of Azaghal and that's only logical, because the sticker on the CD tray tells us that Svartkraft is an Azaghal/Wird sideproject. Well, too many projects can kill your creativity completely, even if you are Narqath and usually able to pen impressive songs (for your main band). But here almost everything sounds like a slavish imitation, especially the minimalist keyboard sequences.

The fatiguing album clocks in at 43 minutes and already Kreator knew: death is your saviour. Admittedly, I didn't know that they meant the death of this arduous output, but be that as it may, Mille, Ventor and the rest of the gang were right. Svartkraft do nothing that has been done before and they do it worse than their more competent brothers in spirit. I recommend to focus on one entity in order to spend it all the creativity and ideas the respective musician has. Otherwise there is always the danger to be a victim of one's own releases. Or to walk the trodden paths another band has already explored. Burzum, for example. But don't say this name too loud, Varg is probably still near.