Loners are nothing unusual in Black Metal and its various sub-genres, on the contrary. As a multi-instrumentalist, as someone who does everything on his own, Roman V., mastermind of Bizarrekult, doesn’t stand out. But there are one-man bands and one-man bands. Some individuals get so caught up in their own creation and their own genius that they forget that discussing what’s good and what’s bad with someone else might actually be helpful and benefit their work. Luckily, Bizarrekult appear to have avoided that trap. In the end quality always separates the wheat from the chaff, and this Norwegian Post Black Metal project have definitely something to show in that regard. And it might be due to the fact that their main loner appears not to be all that alone after all.
The beginnings of the band, I have learned, go back quite some time. In 2006, the band’s founder started composing musical backgrounds for his poems. Poetry, namely, was his first artistic outlet. The project’s first full-length album, however, didn’t see the light of day until 2021. Somewhere between these two dates Roman had relocated from Siberia to Norway, where the new environment revitalized his musical vein.
Bizarrekult’s debut album Vi Overlevde (We Survived) was received positively, especially in Scandinavia, and a small fan base emerged. In the words of its creator, Vi Overlevde was “a testament to survival through personal crisis” and it is “filled with reflections on childhood, family and societal relations.”
The new album Den Tapten Krigen (The Lost War), apart from being released on a new, bigger label, picks up where Vi Overlevde left off and deals with “the constant war inside our lives, war with ourselves, our closest ones, our societies.”
Post Black Metal is a fitting genre for portraying inner conflict, crises, and the constant change between phases of turmoil or restless activity and exhausted respite that shape the lifestyles of many people today. The album’s eight tracks do a convincing job in demonstrating the state of being caught in a spiral, of being torn between two or more options, of not knowing how to continue or how to break free from the vicious cycle. This is done by contrasting aggressive soundscapes with calmer and more harmonious ones. The latter parts are dominated by dreamy, musing and calm female vocals, belonging to Diana V., Roman’s wife, the former feature fast, hectic drumming and guitar parts and Roman’s raspy, guttural singing. In addition, the album’s lyrics are in two languages, Norwegian and Russian, thus amplifying the aforementioned torn-ness, representing two selves, before and after, here and there.
While none of that is new what makes Bizarrekult a more interesting project to engage with is the quality of the execution and the consistency with which the album’s themes are realized in the music, its lyrics and all the accompanying artwork. I would therefore suggest you watch the three videos produced for the three pre-released songs Du Lovet Meg, Midt I Stormen and Den Tapten Krigen. All are of a completely different character, eerie and scary in different ways, yet all will leave you with a similar feeling of unspecifiable unease. My favourite is the video to Midt I Stromen, featuring beautiful black-and-white, gothic aesthetics.
Although the reigning mood is one of anxious melancholia, the artist insists that “Den Tapte Krigen contains a message of hope and reconnection, of necessity to make a peace with yourself, accept what you are, your identity, and share forgiveness and love. This is the only way out of the vicious circle.”
(7.5/10 Slavica)
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