The tragic death of Windir frontman Valfar in January 2004 is still remembered by extreme music fans around the world. Out of that tragedy two bands were born, both of which have released a slew of albums in the ensuing years and both have releases out in early 2021. Slegest recently released the wonderous “Introvert” featuring ex Vreid guitarist Ese and now Vreid are unleashing their ninth full length album – Wild North West.
Not only is this album a concept story based around life and death with a central protagonist “E” but the band have filmed a full-length movie to represent the album visually. It is divided into eight chapters which must be the eight tracks. Three of which are now available on youtube so you can get an idea of the visual concepts of the quartet and the entire movie will be released in conjunction with the audio. Quite a brave thing to do in 2021 in a world that consumes music piecemeal via streaming services. Going to show, once again that Norwegians don’t give a fuck what you think or what is the current trend.
An episodic album deserves an episodic review so strap in folks here comes my not so finest Barry Norman (and why not?) – Mark Kermode for the younger readers.
Wild North West opens with some grimy pipe organ straight out of a Lon Chaney Jr silent shocker before launching into the kind of dark Black n Roll that we have come to expect. – Having seen the video for this track I cannot stop picturing the band playing atop a mountain in delightful Nordic woolly jumpers. The sound is big – cinematic of course – taking some cues here from fellow countrymen Immortal and Satyricon. Nice BM tremolo picking to make sure the icy tundra is tough enough to carry the weight of the melody that sits on it. Blastbeats bring in the orange squeezing moments and lead to the second chapter “Wolves at Sea” which has a raging blackened thrash tempo and boils and froths like the North Sea during wartime. This chapter tells a tale of massacre at sea, death and destruction at the hands of naval warriors with gravitas added by further pipe organ and a piano melody that again sounds like it was lifted from a silent movie from the 20’s.
I wait to see the movie for “Wolves…” to be certain but “The Morning Red” that follows is very much depicting the sun coming up on a desolate blood-soaked place breathing new life onto a graveyard. The track is a slower paced track mixing clean vocals and rasps with a groovy pummel of a beat that simultaneously signals and eschews hope.
Now it’s time for some cinematic bombast with “Shadows of Aurora” starting with a mix of punky bass, keys and timpani(?) before galloping off into an early Helloween style Speed Metal monster. What a corker! Although Sture is still rasping his ways through I can imagine him channelling Kai Hansen as he does so. It’s a romp from start to finish.
“Spikes of God” is, well, a spikey Black Metal blast with atmospheric breaks to accentuate the maelstrom. This is no tinny wasp in a jar riffathon – Vreid continue the use of expansive seeping melodies to keep things in glorious technicolour even when all seems dark and bleak.
“Dazed and Reduced” is a shock for me. I look at my player in disbelief. Is this Ghost? There is a huge slab of proggy Papa on display here. As someone who is definitely not part of that zeitgeist it makes me shiver a little but it does work. This is a piece of storytelling which also shows influence from Alice Cooper (which is much more palatable for me so I will cling onto it!). Quite a leftfield turn from the rest of the album but fitting with the concept and I am won over.
Our protagonist makes it “Into the Mountains” where he is greeted with a female childlike chant welcome before a nice mix of melodic folky Black Metal with a mixed harsh and melodic sung chorus. The in a proper handbrake turn with two minutes left the track veers into electronic Dub. Yup you heard it right – a light dub electronic pulse is joined by the pipe organ for an interlude before a cloud forms over the mountains and things get dark and brooding again. Which is nice slide into “Shadowland” where the organ takes on a funereal tone and it appears that our central character has now met his maker. Hints of Nevermore linger in the background of this epic 9-minuter. It brings everything to a close perfectly with a mournful piano and I hope this is playing under credits in the final cut.
I suppose when one heads out on an epic journey the question at the end is, was it worth it?
Yes – yes it was. It was well worth the effort of a listen straight through and I hope people treat the album like a cinematic experience and sit down with a beer and some salty popcorn to enjoy the whole experience. Just think you hopefully won’t sit in some suspicious sticky patch while you are doing so either.
(8.5/10 Matt Mason)
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