Лишь прах, окалину и выжженую землю оставляя...

When Only Ashes and Scorched Earth are Left Behind is the first album Vargleide released following the name change from Forest. Fans of the first four Forest albums will certainly feel at home here, and yet despite the similarities between the two bands, Vargleide does mark a noticeable change in style. While both bands share the same primitive and hypnotic compositional style accentuated with a subtle sense of melodicism, Vargleide drops some of Forest's more ethereal qualities for a more violent, if not apocalyptic tone.

Each song varies between two or three riff ideas that flow into each other pretty seamlessly. Certainly not something that everyone appreciates, yet unlike the plethora of Darkthrone clones that try and capture the essence of that band's Unholy Trinity, here Vargleide takes the formula pioneered by Transylvanian Hunger and elevates it by making it their own. Far from a carbon copy, this is an elaboration on the style. Each song flows into the next naturally, you could listen to the whole album from beginning to end without noticing any of the song changes. Some might consider this a fault but I would argue to the contrary. This is the album's strength, it gives the work an almost ambient quality. Don't get me wrong, each song is distinct, and this is very clearly black metal and not ambient music, but the arrangements are such that the album is better enjoyed as whole from start to finish.

There's a sense of urgency to the compositions that pull the listener in, a cold desolate atmosphere meant to envelop you, to pull you into a more primal state of consciousness. The drums are an almost constant blast and the percussive quality of Kaldrad's vocals add to this sense of kinetic, urgent motion which helps maintain a bit of dynamism to the repetitive riffing. This is not unlike the band's work as Forest, however unlike that band, there's a distinct lack of calmer moments, and the melodies themselves are far less developed. This is intentional, I think. At least, that's the impression the lyrics give me.

The lyrics, which are translated (rather poorly, I might add) in the CD version, are far less concerned with the pagan mysticism and esoteric nature themes of Forest. Here, Kaldrad and Gegner have doubled down on the martial and apocalyptic themes. Even the album's title itself brings to mind images of desolate battlefields littered with broken and burned bodies. Song titles like "Spare Not Thy Sharpest Blades" or "With the Mead of the Pain", or "Intoxicating Taste of the Swords" evoke a sense of martial pride, of transcendence through strife. I've always thought that a good marker of a successful album is that the music is evocative of the themes present within the lyrics and I believe that Kaldrad and Gegner have done a great job of breathing life into these lyrics with their compositions.

That being said, this isn't an album that everyone will enjoy, and that's alright! Some people will be put off by the repetitive nature of the compositions, others may be put off by the band members' political beliefs, and that's fine. However, for those who are looking for an album that captures the spirit of black metal, where the kinetic energy of heavy metal meets the more hypnotic and atmospheric drones of ambient music, this album is at least worth checking out for yourself. It's not hard to find, and you can pick it up second hand for fairly reasonable prices.

Vargleide are one of the less well known Blazebirth Hall bands, and a continuation of the more popular Forest, featuring several prominent BBH members. The second known release of these Russian Black Metallers, they really do not offer much new music to the BBH scene, and are very run of the mill if you are familiar with Forest, Raven Dark, Branikald, etc.

The musical instrumentation is fairly simple. Guitar Bass (not to be heard though) Drums and Vocals are present, no keyboards on this one. Guitars are highly distorted and generally bash away at simple tremelo riffs that have the occasional interesting melodic moment but are generally very standard and extremely basic. The drums blast away and usually have a double time feel created by the large amount of snare hits in the drum patterns. Vocals are deep and almost guttural, resembling some of the more powerful Russian Black Metal vocals, and fitting the themes of war on this album nicely. The guitars would be helped greatly if they didn't sound like every other demo tape quality guitar out there, because the riffs are far from attention grabbing or inventive. The whole thing relies on the atmosphere to be there, because Vargleide are not counting on you being interested in the guitar lines or drumming.

The atmosphere is however not really that great. I haven't heard the CD version of this but the tape is typically under-produced and has a somewhat raw feel to it. I would prefer on this particular album if the rough edges were smoothed just a little production-wise. The higher register guitar parts sound pretty good and fit nicely with the vocals, but the lower parts are very indistinct and noisy, and sometimes really bleed together with the cymbals. The vocals always stick out of the mix, but have little variation and are almost monotone, though they do have a good full sound to them.

What really plagues this album is that there is no reason to check this out other than being interested in what Forest's continuation sounded like. The band doesn't do anything badly, everything is solid and in place. Unlike similar bands like Darkthrone, however, this band is not able to produce the memorable riffs needed to carry this album. The repetition of standard black metal riffs and forgettable production does little to help the album. It's good for a few listens and has the BBH sound similar to Branikald and Forest, but I think most listeners will probably stick to those two bands. This album is just an exercise in standard black metal.

Vargleide used to be Forest which explains the many similarities in vocal style, guitar sound, themes of war and slaughter and the minimalist style of music. First impressions can be that the songs more or less seem alike as they all charge headlong at much the same furious pace and the guitars are continually buzzing. You need to listen fairly closely to realise that at the end of some songs there is some short guitar improvisation / soloing with the odd melody or two arising out of the fuzz and then fading away all too soon. The percussion varies quite a bit and some of the cymbals work is very creative, suggesting the clashing of swords in the midst of battle. The sound quality is quite good and very clear although the cymbals could have been a bit more upfront as they can seem distant and muted, and for an album as militaristic as this, more emphasis on the percussion would have been welcome.

This is a very hard-hitting record with pounding drums and harsh singing urging on warriors to fight for honour. The whole atmosphere is aggressive, hostile and even frightening. I single out "The strings of the Spirit" for having the best cymbal-clashing and "With the mead of the pain" for the beautiful and flowing melodies played by distorted guitar at the end of the song. "Spare not thy sharpest blades" has a good majestic rhythm hinting victory is at hand and emphasising the message that war can have an uplifting effect on the character of men. (I'm talking about "war" in the sense of close hand-to-hand combat between two people equally matched in skill, experience and weapons and where the outcome can't be predicted; the loser, dead or alive, receives as much honour and dignity from the onlookers as the winner does.)

With the CD's concept being what it is, there really is no room for slower-placed and more melodic music with extended instrumental breaks so from the listener's point of view the music can be relentless and monotonous all the way through. I can only suggest that maybe if the singing (more like lecturing and haranguing than singing!) was a bit more varied and included some screams or shouts, that would vary the songs more and make them seem less like different versions of one ongoing track.