Beholden to Saturn

Based in East Sooke, a small town on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, new duo Tarvos announced their arrival into the BM universe with debut recording "Beholden to Saturn". From its front cover artwork, "Beholden …" looks a very grim and wintry affair but the music turns out raw, energetic and savage with a strong punk influence. Tarvos play as if their very lives depend on their music: it's fast and urgent raw melodic old-school Darkthrone-style BM with a sharply cutting chainsaw-guitar tone, snappy if slightly soft-ish percussion and drummer / vocalist MM's ragged ranting voice almost on its last legs. The four songs on offer are aggressive and confronting with the singing almost bloodcurdling in its raspy tones, yet give a good impression of the duo's uncompromising style and straightforward minimal presentation.

The first two songs "Eclipsed by Darkness (is Sanctuary's Domain" and "Taciturn Caverns" are sharp and noisy affairs with lots of rough edges as the guitars churn and toss out riff after riff with plenty of sawdust flying off to the sides. The drumming is snappy as it marks out time and the guitars keep rolling out melodies that ripple and bristle with sharp electricity. The tracks can give the impression that not a lot happens and that the music just keeps rolling along as one set of repeating riffs merges into the next and so on. The songs might appear simple on casual listening but if you pay some attention to them, you'll be surprised at how much the musicians throw into both songs. "Taciturn Caverns" in particular becomes more frenetic in its second half with the music speeding up and becoming more intense, even hypnotic in its repeating riff loops.

"Gairm" is a slow and icy track with jagged riffing in parts and a doomy, sometimes stomping pace. The slowness seems to make the guitars rawer to the point where they're almost unbearable to hear. A hellish atmosphere develops through the track with long instrumental passages of never-ending tremolo guitar riff immersion, broken apart by half-spoken / half-shouted lyrics. On this, as on other songs, the vocals make no attempt to match the music's pace whether it's fast or slow – MM is keener on delivering a message than on keeping in harmony with the guitars or drums. Final track "Beholden" may be the shortest track on offer but what it lacks in quantity is made up for by distinct shrill riffing and hypnotic drumming that seems to throb.

The debut has a no-nonsense minimal style of delivery that emphasises the songwriting and the lyrics with all their aggression and energy. The songs may be light on atmosphere, melodrama and structural variety, preferring a series of repeating riff loops matched by the drumming in its pace and rhythms, but just by slowing down or dragging out tones into near-drones, the music can end up sounding cold, grim and stand-offish anyway. The standard and consistency of the duo's playing and their ability to jam and bounce ideas and vitality off one another are good. Not much needs improving in the Tarvos style of presentation: everything can be heard clearly, and the music can be mesmerising in its own raw punk way. Possibly the drumming could be a bit more prominent in the music than it is for an even more hard-hitting and savagely powerful style.