Zgard’s last opus, 2013’s Astral Glow, managed to make it into my top 10 of the year. Its atmospheric pagan black metal had an ambient, almost meditative edge, while at the same time being crammed full of decent, drifting tunes. Reading back my last review I expressed a few doubts but perhaps a little needlessly. I mean, it’s pagan black metal, it’s got a flute in it – get over it. In the end it obviously proved itself over the months and it became one of the albums that I kept returning to over and over. Yes, it had some of the quirks that every one man black metal band should have but it all came together in a seamless package that smacks of honesty, confidence and is drenched in personality.
A little over a year later, and Zgard’s driving force Yaromisl has issued yet another keyboard-soaked outing (he manages about one a year and even squeezed in a split with Romanian black metallers Prohod in February) with all the same finesse as the first. This time he’s turned up the production a notch and has given the guitars a bit more of a hard, pagan, Bathory-style edge. Better still, he’s raised their profile compared to Astral Glow when it sometimes seemed that they might drown altogether in the keyboard atmospherics. There are more diverse vocals (provided, at least in part from what I can gather, by a session musician) with some clean singing and even a flirtation with spoken word passages which all helps to build Zgard’s colourful canvas beyond what was on Astral Glow. It’s not that Astral Glow did not have the same emotive power, but Contemplation just seems to have the extra dimension, from wider collaboration in the studio, perhaps. The pleasantly addictive melodies are there again though but this time there is an even more commanding use of hypnotising rhythms (on third track Incarnation Memory, for example).
As rousing and enjoyably melodic as it is, Zgard’s trick is not so much in the delivery of such things but in producing an absorbing, almost easy listening experience. Tunes that wash over you on your endless journey across the steppes and into the Northern Carpathians under moon and starlit Ukrainian skies. Combined with the use of a variety of regional instruments, and even high-pitched female vocals on one track, it all begins to build into a more rounded experience than previous efforts while maintaining the individual signature that can make some one-man black metal bands such an intriguing listen. The title track features a vocal exchange that I can only assume is a conversation between Yaromisl and his inner self which really works well (even though it sounds like it might not) and probably because of Zgard’s utter confidence and easy attitude to production which allows things to drift in front of you rather than ramming it in your face. And finally, he unleashes the Eastern hymn Underworld Bells, reminiscent of the peasant workers songs made popular during the Soviet era. A steadily dramatic finish.
All in all, Zgard offers his own take on the atmospheric black metal scene. There is a passion and authenticity in this sound and Yaromisl clearly has a vision of what he is trying to produce, transporting the listener to the open horizons of his Carpathian homeland. Zgard brings harsh black metal and ambient sounds wonderfully to the point where you could be forgiven for not remembering exactly which you’re actually listening to. An individual sound in an atmospheric pagan black metal genre where it is increasingly hard to find such a thing.
(8/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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