The Forces of Torment

First impression: rehearsal room atmosphere, raw black metal, hardly bass, excessive Darkthrone worshipping and when it comes to the song-writing then the focus seemed to have been to keep the compositions simple, riff-oriented but catchy. They are straight-forward and without a compromise in the style; i.e. as the music is faster, the attempt has been to keep the tempo up and to stick to it from the beginning to the end. This is fine, because the tracks are not plain or boring, no production or mix to ruin it, and Vuotan are able to create this special early-Darkthrone atmosphere again.

The music does not reach for the aggressiveness and tempo of Darkthrone's art, but shows influences in the vibe and general approach; imagine the music of the Norwegians at around 75% of the tempo. Vuotan generally sticks to a good deal of repetition of the riffs, but they always get the turn at the right moment and the compositions are not too boring. The overall drive of the music is what keeps the listener interested and the aforementioned aspect can be compensated through this in some respect. It might be a surprise, but it is actually possible to understand something of the lyrics, which works fine with the track Black Metal Warriors for instance.

Vuotan's first demo is nothing original, nothing to which it would be possible to refer to as fresh and new, but the music is catchy, the production not bad and a lot of bands sound much worse on their first release. Those six compositions are really good to listen to and create the feeling of black metal from the early days again. Yes, the music is far beyond from perfect, but at least no really annoying aspects can be found here. Some additional complexity in the song-writing could increase the tension and atmosphere, as the currently used long "riff-passages" are too simple to fascinate entirely. They are not bad or boring, just plain.

The rating does rather reflect the perception of this release from a broader perspective, but a recommendation for this demo can easily be given. Especially, as this time no depressive black metal or similar stuff can be found. Raw and old-school influenced black metal is played by Vuotan and they are not even bad at this.