The black flag is the primary symbol of anarchist movements and of resistance in general. The polar opposite of the white flag, it says that its bearer won’t surrender and will show its opponent no mercy. Black flags fluttering in the wind, behind them a storm brewing – this is the cover image for Iskandr’s recently released, third full-length album Vergezicht (Eng.: view, prospect). Rebellion is on the horizon it appears to be saying. What it doesn’t say is who is rebelling against what or whom.
Iskandr are a heathen black metal project from the Netherlands. M. Koops is responsible for the drumming and mastermind O for everything else – vocals, guitars and other instruments, recording, engineering and production. Both band members are very prolific and involved in multiple other bands. They are also part of the Dutch Haeresis Noviomagi collective that specializes in dark musical art. Among the better-known bands to come out of the collective are Turia in which O is also one of the main creators. Turia’s mountain-themed last album Degen van Licht was one of my favourite releases of 2020, so I was naturally curious to hear Vergezicht.
The first thing that should be said about the album is that it takes its time. Not only is it surprisingly slow-paced over long stretches, its runtime of over an hour will require you to clear bits from your daily schedule in order to listen to it in its entirety. Apart from that you need to know that while being melodic and atmospheric black metal and sharing common roots with similar projects, this is grander in scope, more ambitious and more elaborate than most related albums.
The audible compositional complexity is connected to the number of instruments utilized. Among them, for example, is a trumpet – definitely not part of your usual black metal instrumentation. In addition, there are a lot of different field recordings to be heard, as well as a wide array of vocal techniques. The result are soundscapes with a story-telling effect successfully transmitting different aspects and stages of resistance and rebellion.
Album opener Gezag starts out with a melancholic acoustic passage speaking of prolonged hardships. It is followed by a call to arms announced via trumpet sound which leads over to a tumultuous combination of guitars, drums and vocals. Once you’ve immersed yourself in the sonic world Iskandr have created, and it won’t take you more than two tracks to do so, you’ll hear marching and charging in the different combinations of guitar riffs and drums, victory in soaring guitar passages, and stoic persistence in repetitive sound segments. Sometimes the progress of the fighters is slower and more arduous, sometimes fast and turbulent. My favourite among the album’s six “majestic paeans to those whose banners are only illuminated by the fires of rebellion” is Baken which features all of the elements mentioned above, forming one remarkably coherent, hook-studded piece of music.
I liked most tracks on Vergezicht. The album’s rebellion theme is very appealing and establishes a connection to a long line of bands in underground music, as does the leitmotif of the black flag. However, I feel that subject and music would have profited from a bit conciseness. In a time where believers of conspiracy theories and members of the alt right present themselves as rebels, it helps to point out what really constitutes a worthy cause. Although I tried, I could not find any additional context in the album’s lyrics. Of a vague nature, they are rather snapshot of scenes than complete stories. Likewise, the music, probably in an attempt to accurately portray atmosphere and sentiment, sometimes takes too long and is overloaded with details. That’s especially true for the last, most complex and longest track Het Slot that goes from A to B without a discernable red thread. Nevertheless, there is no denying that a great amount of talent has collected under the Haeresis Noviomagi banner.
(7/10 Slavica)
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