Exploring themes as various as modern-day warmongering, space colonisation and declining mental health, progressive black metal band Svneatr are here releasing their third album.
Solid and heavy is “Mechanical Wolves”, which gets us under way. This is a heavy metal march, not too fast but weighty and pungent in its instrumental work. It didn’t get out of third gear so I was hoping for the band to kick on. A quiet and delicate guitar riff briefly opens up “Never Return” before the vocalist’s deathly raspings intermingle with a technical metal display. It’s complex and intriguing, rising in tempo and fury to give an edge to the song. We return to an acoustic lead but it again the prelude to a fiery explosion. After a pagan-style vocal section, the growls come in. The music is frantic and epic. “And When Comes The Storm” is a whirlwind, reminding me greatly of Enslaved’s “As Fire Swept Clean the Earth”. Svneatr slow things down and in comes a quieter reflective passage complete with cello before bursting out grandly one final time.
“Omen” goes back to a traditional heavy rock riff, laced with Vitarr Monteith’s dark and spooky vocals. It’s another driving song, with moans and flamboyant guitar work to heighten the ominous atmosphere. Evil winds then whip in as “Blackout” builds up. This is the first true black metal song in style I’d heard, not that this is a criticism as Svneatr explicitly explore different elements and styles within the structure of their songs. “Blackout” flows like the others and as well as featuring a deep riff, there’s a dazzling guitar solo which integrates well. As if to press home the black mood, the end becomes funereal before a final outpouring of venom. This leads to the doomy beginning of “Reaper of the Universe”. The guitar takes on a defiant stance. Monteith growls menacingly (ok, I know, growls don’t tend to be friendly as a rule). The band are on the attack, devastating all that’s in front of them with their driving and penetrating instrumental work and the vocals. Black and death metal combine to create an impressive slab. Oh, and half way through the mood changes and we find ourselves in a lush, exotic world where echoing, haunting vocals intervene and add to the emotive world of splendour. This may all sound strange but Svneatr have control of this and of our senses. It would have been stranger if they hadn’t returned to the deep and vibrant black metal atmosphere with which this song started, and to choral accompaniment this is exactly what they do, leaving the album to end on a lofty, dark and menacing note.
What I very much liked here is that while Svneatr dedicate themselves to amassing sinister atmospheres in different ways, the quality of the songs remains at the centre. The band control the progressions very well. The songs have a kind of epic mysticism about them. “Never Return” is an interesting and varied collection.
(8.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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