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Vahrzaw > Black Resplendent Waters > Reviews > Alhadis
Vahrzaw - Black Resplendent Waters

Raw black metal that doesn't suck. - 86%

Alhadis, July 1st, 2011

If you're familiar with any of Vahrzaw's newer releases, it might come as a surprise that once upon a time, the band wasn't playing death metal with the hard-hitting, militaristic precision they play with today. Over 15-years ago, a trio of ragged, determined teenagers pooled their money into renting a backwater recording studio for one day. In this time, six songs were performed live back-to-back on cheap shoddy equipment in the hopes of going without a mistake. This band was Vahrzaw, and if you played this demo alongside something like, say Acquiesce, you'd hardly believe it was the same band.

Vahrzaw started out playing very raw, old-school black metal in the same vein as early Impaled Nazarene (or to a lesser extent, Darkthrone). The sound on this demo reflects the traditional ideals of black metal very well: raw and immersive. The intense and buzzing tremolo riffing invokes a very tangible atmosphere and the percussion is very prominent throughout the album. However, the production could've still benefited from a -

..... still reading? Rolling your eyes and passing this off as just another forgettable black metal demo played in the same vein as every other Darkthrone-worshipping band? Well, you'd be wrong. Though forgiven for thinking so.

These boys might've gone into a cheap studio with even cheaper equipment and churned out the entire demo in 8 hours... but the songwriting shows that they weren't content with simply slapping some raw-sounding noise together and calling it art. The first track opens with low, ominous black metal riffing from William's before breaking into a thrashy, slower pace. A young George van Doorn's voice can be heard breaking through the dusty riffs with intense blackened rasps. The drums punctuate the atmosphere well, keeping good pace as the song progresses. The track hits a break of clean, eerie singing to catch the listener unaware, setting the right mood for the rest of the demo.

The track follows on with From Where the Midnight Whispers Call, opening with slow, distinctive guitar riffs. The rhythm builds slowly before the drums pick up the pace and launch into a rousing, lively pace. The lyrics here are noticeably coherent; some listeners might be tempted to draw a parallel to Burzum on behalf of the writing style alone:

"I stare up at the pallid moon
I plead to the burning sky
From where the midnight whispers call
I hear their deafening cry"


George's voice mightn't have dropped as far as Vahrzaw's later releases (hey, he was still 19) but he does a good job of enouncing the expressive lyrics that've remained one of the band's hallmarks. It's a relief that during the song-writing, the band never left lyrics as an afterthought; the writing complements the musicianship well without coming off as too try-hard.

Souls Awakening is next, showcasing some pretty catchy drumming and basswork from the trio, but doesn't offer anything too out-of-the-ordinary... save some pretty impressive drum-work from young Ben. Who, despite being a blind 15-year old on a shoddy drum set, does a frigging good job of showcasing his talents. (Yes, I said blind. These boys were determined). The drumset's quality - or lack thereof, does come out pretty audibly in parts of this track. It's almost too easy to envision the drummer trying to keep the kit together.

The title track is next, bringing a more rousing feel to it, similar to the way From Where Midnight Whispers Call did. Conquering the Heavens is probably one of my favourites from the demo, and certainly one of the fastest on the album. The band took a thrashier, uglier approach with the track (read: good sort of "ugly"), bringing to mind an angry young Impaled Nazarene. And in actual fact, is the oldest song on the demo, written back in 1993.

Finally, the demo wraps up with Namiro's: a definite highlight of the release and still a live staple to this day. The track starts off with a slow, unsettling atmosphere that creates a rather eerie, unearthly mood... exactly the kind of thing you'd dim your lights to on a late evening. The chorus is chuggier, keeping the five-minute long track from falling into tedium. The bass here is particularly prominent, which suits the build of the track (you'll probably have already noted that when the song started). The one criticism with this track would be that it doesn't finish up nearly as epic as it started; the music suddenly drops too unceremoniously for my liking. But hey, with the entire demo in hindsight, that's only a pretty small shortcoming.

Overall, this is a very solid release done at a time when black metal was still in the underground, from three determined young metalheads bent on writing some no-frills, caustic black metal and given the tight budget, and the fact the entire thing was recorded live (minus the vocals), it's easy to see how this demo stands as a credit to the band's skills. The hostility the band faced from the press at the time shows that they weren't playing black metal to be trendy either. This demo's not the most groundbreaking record in metal history, but it doesn't have to be... it's an honest, well-performed slice of the mid-90s metal scene of outback Australia, showing that even in the parts of the world furthest from frozen Norway, the venomous spirit of black metal was thriving and very much alive.