Before you read the review we are proud to be one of the websites asked to host the brand new accompanying video for “Utan Mening.” The song used in the video, is the opening track from “Ode & Elegy, the band’s fourth full-length album, and it explores the endlessly repeating cycle of aridity that passes for life. The video is directed by J. Ejnarsson and features A. Rohtsalu in the role of a depressed young woman slipping further and further into darkness and despair from which she is unable to escape. Footage of the band is also included in the video.
Watch it here.
Time for some “positive music for positive people!” Well you can take that with a pinch of salt and indeed rub it in that newly opened cut just to get the full effect of your pain and suffering. Depressive Swedes Vanhelga have never shied away for presenting human frailty and pain of existence in musical form so don’t expect anything in the way of mollycoddling on album number 4. However a fair bit does seem to have changed since last album Längtan in 2014. For a start it seems the band are releasing this themselves for whatever reason and musically they have moved even further away from that DSBM tag. Sure if you are looking for the DS side of it and that depressive and suicidal it’s certainly there but black metal? Well not exactly.
2 EP’s and a couple of splits have stemmed the gap between albums but whereas Längtan was more an expression of both hatred and love of life just one look at the artwork here paints a very different picture. Putting it together with the music perhaps the wretchedness of life might be a better description? ‘Destroyed,’ ‘Declared Dead,’ ‘Disharmony’ are some of the descriptive translated song titles here, this is a bleak and raw look on things and should not be casually dipped into without some thought and understanding. Perhaps Vanhelga’s music is appreciated by people who find themselves suffering on the fringes of life itself, it certainly appears to be made by the very definition of the tortured artist and the authenticity behind it is relayed musically to near perfection.
That feeling of urban neglect and despondency is illustrated by gloomy tones and distant ghostly voices as the spoken miserable vocals come in full of grief and pain. Yet things rise with choral harmonies and become a bipolar ode to joy. Lyrics are in a language that I have no understanding of but the expression behind everything here is clear to all. There are some sorrowful backing female parts and the music gently drifts along before a sudden chugging guitar refrain acting like electric shock therapy makes its unexpected mark. It’s all very beautiful and yes you can definitely appreciate the group’s form of twisted positivity. The acoustic ‘Det som aldrig fanns’ is actually really quite gorgeous, the use of what sounds like a tannoy announcement has you thinking of someone contemplating a journey and whether to catch a train or jump in front of it. The repetitive nature of the lush instrumentation and occasional male and female vocal caresses are a soothing and far removed from anything in the metal world, it’s all about melancholic textures here. The tracks flow into each other and are presented like a dreamy musical voyage but not one without psychological destruction along the way as some downright manic cackles, gurgles and other vocal contortions are summoned out making me wonder if I am listening to actual music or the ramblings of a restrained psychiatric patient. Occasional guitar work and cantering passages take the acoustic edge off things but are certainly not the main emphasis of the work here and occasional flurries should be looked upon as more of an extra dimension to songs main structures.
Piano motifs are used in a near classic sense and the jagged frantic approach of the likes of Lifelover who were at a point connected by members to Vanhelga have drifted a lot further away. Indeed listening to the likes of ‘Jag återkommer’ it’s as though main composer J.O. would be as happy experimenting in everything from classical music to jazz. Occasionally a riff such as that on ‘Abstinensens dystra tongång’ may remind of something like Dissection but on the whole the album could be looked on as highly experimental, more so even than having a lazy avant-garde tag placed on it. Suddenly though levels are ramped up and with that ‘Declared Dead’ number harsh tones, vocals and perhaps the reality of the slab are in your face. It’s schizophrenic in the extreme though as the music moves into a salsa like joyous jig. There is no doubt a story behind all this but unravelling it all as the grimmer cold tones of ‘Disharmoni’ (which needs no translation) set in would no doubt send you teetering to the brink of madness trying to interpret. Different moods and emotions are explored and we get a wealth of them as the album leads to conclusion Paralysis, represented by a hard metallic edge and even some classic metal guitar signatures, reflection and ultimately numbing introspection.
There’s an absolute wealth of ideas weaving their way through this album and like the human mind they are difficult to unravel and perhaps subject to over analysis. On a simpler form, Ode and Elegy is a remarkable album and those behind it are probably the only ones who can make complete sense as the rest of us are left to somewhat voyeuristically look in.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
08/11/2016 at 10:44 pm
Absolutely shite, crap for depressed little teenagers who think they know everything. When will people start reviewing real music?