Towards the Frozen Stream

"Towards the Frozen Stream" is the warmest of the "atmospheric winter" type black metal albums I've heard. Despite traits that are generally associated with aural coldness like reptilian vocals and sharp buzzing distortion, each of the album's 8 tracks contains a beating heart trying to thaw its way out of a frigid Finnish winter. The emphasis here is on ethereal beauty and hopeful majesty, not depressive darkness or despair. I've heard people compare Vordven to Paysage d'Hiver before, and I must say that these two bands are a great example of comparing apples to tangerines.

Like many other atmospheric black metal albums, "Towards the Frozen Stream" employs ambient keyboards, female vocals and hypnotic riffs mixed rather low. The melodies are most noticeably carried by the keyboards; listeners only looking for abundant displays of technical guitar prowess will not be blown away. General production value is somewhat comparable to "For All Tid" by Dimmu Borgir, a little fuzzy but still clear and delightfully lacking the overblown crispness of many modern recordings. Pardon the far-reaching analogy: if it were a photograph, "Towards The Frozen Stream" would have softened edges and a slight glossy effect.

The whole album glows radiantly with not a filler track in sight, nor the rage and aggression that is present in much of the black metal genre. Indeed, it seems like a long stretch to place Vordven in the same genre as other well known Finnish black metal acts like Beherit or Impaled Nazarene. Every piece of subpar kvlt trash with a forest on its album cover that claims to possess "majesty" really ought to look up to Vordven for achieving what all the forest-album-cover clones attempt to do. Have a go at any of the songs on this album, close your eyes, and you will see a vast expanse of nature covered in powdery snow. No other album I've listened to has achieved "ethereal winter" as effectively as "Towards the Frozen Stream." Indeed, it is ever so slightly heartbreaking to admit that perhaps this 1999 release is the pivotal breaking point for this species of black metal. 2001's "Woodland Passage" was still quite good, but nowhere near as sweepingly majestic as its predecessor.

Recommended for anyone to whom the buzzwords "epic," "majesty," "forest," and "fantasy" appeal. This album is the musical equivalent of Tolkien's Rivendell; there's even a song on it with that same name.