Aldriendir aka Andreas Baier is a Swedish musician who obviously likes to keep himself busy in a variety of cross-genre bands. We recently encountered him in stoner / desert rock group Besvärjelsen and he has worked past and present with grinders Afgrund, Sludge / post metal act Oak and pagan drone folkers Altaret. As far as Hilning are concerned though, the torch is lit, the corpse-paint applied and the bollocks no doubt frozen in the “bitter cold and epic’ forests of his country. Yes, this is Swedish black metal as perpetrated by its sole practitioner under the guise of an endless night-sky. Considering we have just started hitting a heatwave in the normally frigid UK, it might well be just the tonic to cool me down.
The normal translation tools seem completely thwarted here so perhaps things are presented in an obscure dialect? It seems the music is going to have to do the talking and opener ‘Ôva dommbqiłdân dał’ starts things off with some nostalgic sounding keyboard, dungeon synth setting the mood. Moving into thumping frosty drama with raspy vocals and driving pace it gets its talons in quickly and with the strong melody behind it has an immediate and commanding tone. Cymbal’s crunch and crash as it powerfully swaggers through its icy domain and for those who dwell in such musical places its comfortably accessible in its hostility.
There are nine formidable tracks here that bristle from pagan might to punky brackishness over the 48-minute running time. There is a synth adding some grandiosity amongst the heft and although pace is pretty fast throughout, harmonies shine through as do occasional folky embellishments. There is a real Scandinavian vibe flowing through the music which should certainly be of interest to fans of bands such as Arckanum, Taake and Kampfar and you are going to be hard pushed not to suddenly find yourself banging your head as well as being invigorated by it. The only problem with this is it is hardly cooling me down and although atmosphere is cold, sweat is running. This is especially so with the strange and alluring, mystical opening keyboard pulsations of ‘Ukko’ which pitch me up on a desert island in the middle of an obscure Jess Franco film. It’s very odd but somehow the Moog like sound works well with the main cut and thrust of the bravado ridden main song.
There’s plenty to keep your concentration levels up. Myrvittra for instance has a bit of a pastoral flavour and what sounds like a violin at one point lurking in the background whilst ‘Finnmarkens sista rebel’ has sledgehammering like brutality about it. So, a good varied listen for those who like their music forged with ice, fire and steely determination. Originally self-released in Feb, Suicide Records obviously agreed and have grabbed this and hopefully it will now get some more widespread attention. No doubt it won’t be long before Andreas pops up with something completely different.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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