The fact that Angantyr, after all these long years, have
gotten minimal recognition outside of the underground black metal community
(most of which is in Europe) baffles me. Possibly one of the best black metal
bands to rise up during the 90s, Angantyr have continued to release masterpiece
after masterpiece. This album, released in 2012, was one that apparently
slipped past my radar until a few months ago. If you’re not familiar with this
band, the official lineup consists of Ynleborgaz, also responsible for Make a
Change…Kill Yourself, as well as being the drummer for Profezia and Blodarv.
Unlike many one-man black metal projects, Angantyr actually plays live shows
with the support of a live bassist and drummer (I assume that Ynleborgaz plays
guitar and vocals). But even then, this band seems to have only played in and
around Europe with minimal success, and considering that there are several
other lower-quality black metal bands that are all about the stage performance
doing much better, it’s refreshing to know that there are still bands that have
continued to focus on making the best music out there. This is Angantyr’s most
recent release, titled Forvist.
Part of the reason why Antantyr doesn’t grab as much
attention as other similar bands is the absence of Satanism and cold
blasphemy/violence in the lyrical themes; everything Angantyr writes has
something to do with Scandinavian/northern European history. Obviously, this
means there’s a lot of Viking shit in there! But unlike a lot of other Viking-themed
bands like Turisas, Amon Amarth, Tyr, and Ensiferum, Angantyr isn’t all loud n’
proud about it; they don’t have Viking shields and guys in armor battling some
mythical sea monster on every album cover; this is the real shit. Somewhat
similar to Tyr, Angantyr talks about the extreme hardships the people of
Scandinavia were put through. Except the stories that are told in this case are
much older and brutal ones; a common theme being that of Christianity being
forced onto the people of Scandinavia, causing them to expand their homelands
and find new places to settle. But after the release of Sejr in 2007, the
themes seemed to move more towards the exploration and discovery side of that
era. The fall of England making it an easy target for the Vikings and the
brutality that followed. What I’m trying to say is that this shit isn’t the
exciting, epic, glorified fairytales that other Viking-themed bands write
about; this is the real shit, this is much deeper and darker (much more fitting
for the style of music). And to be honest, it’s much more interesting to listen
to; it’s much more emotional and has more power behind it that the music can
intensify.
The intro to the first song is a stripped-down example of
the melodic atmosphere of the entire album. A purely acoustic line backed by
the relaxing rolling of waves on the beach, it’s the best intro Angantyr has
produced yet. All of Angantyr’s records have a soft, melodic intro, but this
one, although shorter than the others, is the most profound and does the best
job of setting the mood for the entire album. Another thing that helps make the
intro stick more is the intensified melody in the guitar work. In a few of the
previous albums, the melody was achieved through the commonly-used method of
having a guitar track tremolo picking a single note at a time (the particular
note obviously changing with the movement of the song). This method is used on Forvist,
but not nearly as often as before. In Forvist and Svig, its predecessor, the
guitar melody is implemented into the chords already being played. Ynleborgaz
has one (maybe two) backing guitar tracks, the main rhythm guitar tracks, and a
second rhythm guitar track that plays everything the main one is along with the
added notes to the chords to create the melody. I’m most likely wrong in this
assumption, so don’t take my word for it, but this is what it sounds like.
Angantyr is always spot-on with drums. Ynleborgaz’ drumming
is spectacular; his blast beats are some of the most solid in the genre, and at
the same time doing a great job at keeping things interesting by adding
numerous riffs and flairs. The dramatic change that Ynleborgaz has taken on
this album is adding larger sections that use completely different tempos and
drum patterns. The alternate patterns that he’s always used have been the same
ones, but on this album, he creates new ones, as if he finally realized he was
overusing those other alternate patterns. The vocals could use to be a lot more
powerful; but nonetheless, you can easily hear the emotion behind them. If he
were to add some variety in pitch, that would make everything much more
interesting and grim, especially if it were growls.
If you are in any way a listener of black metal, you need to
pick up this record because it takes you on a journey beyond written
description; the atmosphere and melodies are indescribably beautiful. The songs
on this album don’t exactly differ from each other to the point of being
separate songs. They more so tie together into a seam of raw bleakness. I don’t
mind the low production quality of black metal, but there are some cases where
it’s stupid. Do the drums really have to be THAT overpowering? Do the vocals
have to stick out THAT much? Although this album has the pure rawness that it
should have, the mixing work has everything balanced out PERFECTLY so that it
flows through your ears like silk. Forvist gets 19/20.
