arckanum sviga lae

Released: 18 October 2010 Label: Regain Records

If you like your black metal with the dramatic sheen of a Dimmu Borgir or the theatrical trappings of a Cradle of Filth, you best avoid Sviga Lae like a Hammer Horror vampire avoids garlic.

See, this is black metal the old school way: Grim, nasty and merciless, without the merest hint of operatic female vocals or tokenistic keyboards. These eight tracks are raw in their composition and stark in the atmospheres they create. Purists and cultists will love it.

Burzum is name-checked on the accompanying press release, but Sviga Lae captures neither the animalistic rage of Varg’s early work nor the moody melancholia of his later albums. Perhaps a more accurate frame of reference is the primitive assault of early Bathory coupled with the simplistic brutality of Darkthrone circa Transilvanian Hunger.

In true black metal style, the album sounds like it was recorded on a twenty quid ghetto blaster and it’s not a triumph of musicality, but there remains much to recommend it.

In Folva Felr is almost catchy, its main riff baring a passing resemblance to Metallica’s Orion while both Gramr Girnisk and Muspellzheimr Kenr both have imaginative arrangements with echo the death / black metal crossover of Behemoth.

Ugly, uncompromising and utterly necro, this is a massive triumph for those who feel black metal has lost its edge and sold out its spirit. Pass the corpse paint please.

by Marcus Jervis