When a mate of mine heard the last Borknagar album, his first comment to me was “Well, that’s Vintersorg buggered then”. I felt this was a comment with far too many possible connotations…on many levels…and so I asked him to clarify “Well, it’s obvious isn’t it – Sorry Vinty me old mate, but you’ve run out of ideas and we’re getting the old singer back! Giving him the elbow gradually I reckon…by the way isn’t it your round…?”. A bit harsh I thought (not least as I knew damn well I’d bought the previous round), but as my friend clearly had an insight into the band, what with him knowing they call him ‘Vinty’ and everything (!), it did get me thinking – maybe he has run out of ideas – I did think his last solo album was a little bit patchy after all. That was until I heard the last Cronian album – by far their best and now this latest Vintersorg offering – this is a guy exploring his musical options, still flourishing with fresh ideas and at the top of his game.
Vintersorg (the band is actually a duo consisting of Vintersorg himself and long-term cohort since 1999 Mattias Marklund which isn’t confusing at all!) outings are usually avant-garde affairs where they try different things that are generally too off-the-wall for other Vintersorg/Marklund projects. I thought that on “The Focusing Blur” they got the balance just about right but occasionally moments of experimentation/insanity can eclipse the song itself, especially on subsequent releases. This time around though things feel different. There is a conscious shift towards melody (though we’re absolutely not talking the next Bon Jovi here), an effort to put something catchy and memorable in each song, but without losing any intensity. None of the power has been lost at all as the classic Scandinavian Black Metal feel intro to opener ‘Ur aska och sot’ confirms. Early Borknagar in feel, it’s the “extras” you notice – the memorable riff, the limited use of a female vocal (also cropping up to great effect on ‘Rymdens brinnande öar’) and an almost Beach Boys backing vocal to the chorus (that’s the off-the-wall I mentioned!). And the double-kick power continues through ‘Överallt och ingenstans’, the first of many tracks on here that have striking elements of mid-era Arcturus as well as Winds. It has a latter-day Emperor structure to it, but includes a whoa-whoa bit that the aforementioned Bon Jovi would be proud of!
It’s this juxtaposing of styles, all wrapped up in a Vintersorg composition that I always enjoy on a Vintersorg release, but this time I really like the mixing of quintessentially dyed-in-the-woad Scandinavian Extreme/Pagan Metal with the swathes of melody that most of the tracks on “Naturbål” possess. Hardened Black Metallers will maybe hate it, the more progressive extreme metal thinkers should appreciate it, though it will probably be a mite too intense for Dream Theater worshipping progsters – which does tend to narrow their market a little…which I’m sure is of no interest to Vintersorg and their existing fan-base!
I realised half way through this review (you can actually spot the place – just after the third non-English spell-check defying song title!) that a track by track analysis was a bit of a waste of time, because on “Naturbål” the songs have quite a unified feel. Each song contains different surprises and intricacies that enhance them individually and to be honest, if you are already a fan and/or keen to hear this album, I don’t want to spoil it for you – it’s unpredictability is part of it’s charm. It’s not Borknagar, Fission, Cronian, Waterclime or even Otyg. It’s just another twist in the discography of Vintersorg – and one of their best at that! Interesting, quirky and unique, just how it should be.
(8/10 Andy Barker)
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