Dark Waters Stir

Isvind is black metal of Nordic stock and build. Along with some other Norwegian bands, this maintained the basics of the genre: full of speed, heedless to palm mutes and solos, dissonant as well as harmonious with layered rhythms, self-distorted vocals and higher-toned guitars, and generally a bleak approach when it comes to crafting their take on musicianship. Others gave bm progressive tendencies, avant-garde inclinations, symphonic leanings, or just threw in some more cross genres, yet this is still recognizable to the ground roots belonging to the same shadowy, branching tree along with Darkthrone, Mayhem, Burzum, Immortal and Gorgoroth.

The music is both melodic and melancholic, grabbing hold of your senses with violin-like harmony and mostly whirlwind-like speed. They're an emotionally challenging entity that can swoop in to insert their charisma with memorable rhythms, and also have the ability to peel back their approachable front with a dark, morose face that even the vultures leave alone once fatally smitten by its inner afflictive torments. The guitars are a big focal point here with the bass and drums at times side stepping to ambiance; something like the lit candles, chalk outlines and general tools to a ceremony or procession, with the guitars being the spells and the speaker there to invoke direction by reading its passages out loud. The guitars can be layered: using multiple intermeshed rhythms to create an encompassing eerie presence, repetitive: to maintain a disposition and have your mind drift and come closer to its creeping blackness and suffering, and catchy: to gravitate you to its sanctum but not knowing until it's too late that you've been snared by its will and allure.

The production is way less hiss-like than one would imagine, and it's consistent in the sense that when you change tracks the volume stays the same. It still has some fuzz due to the guitars having multiple brushed on coats, and to certain degrees the instruments are purposely blended but not completely hidden or hindered by putting up a wall. To get a better idea of what I mean, this is a decent recording where EQ is used and the sounds aren't piercing; the engineers took that and added a certain amount of manipulation, but not to the point of having it too clean or too distorted. For instance, the drums have some effects attached, though they all have a microphone giving it a steady sound with his snare being more weighted than other black metal recordings, and his cymbals being present and accounted for with perceptible guiding clicks even when charging forward.

The vocals spout their native language in a back-of-the-throat, croaky, sometimes extended rasp. Most areas fair better, but at some other times the mixing can sound slightly off since the volume can become too even or similar with the rest of the instruments, almost fade away, where most other bands have their vocalist's presence raised noticeably louder for each song. His performance doesn't come across as either annoying or forgettable, though you don't get to experience an unraveling vocal projection, where his techniques would continue to evolve during the span, instead he mostly stays on the same plateau with just a few rare clean moments and some extended outbursts outside of his usual territory.

'Dark Waters Stir' on one hand isn't a pivotal recording to black metal in that it's going to blow the speaker covers off your stereo with brand new or radical ideas. But on the other hand, this release does maintain what has been built up to that point and is most importantly still fresh with their own take on the genre due to engaging, moody and calculated song writing. I found that they have guitar lines on each and every track that are engrossing where even a few of them could actually be hummed right along, or if you don't want to be seen doing the "deed": save it up for some later dark-alley loitering. What makes this release returnable as a whole is that it's reliable, it sticks to the basics, hardly tapping into experimentation or surprises that could have come off as distracting or forced, and I'll drop my pseudonym here and be Frank for a second: I'm not a firm believer that every band is capable of pulling that off, and with the number of bands since, that stood in an orderly fashion to blindly service the abyss so to speak, I'm skeptical. Even in the '90s some bands came off as imitators or mimes without substance; Forsth immediately comes to mind. Although this uses a tasteful supernatural sounding keyboard arrangement with a few higher notes during the much slower played last song, and after some silence when the music dies down, a hidden track appears with the vocalist using clean vocals over their take on mid-paced black metal music.

You can essentially count on Isvind for delivering within their own uncomplicated framework, concentrating on giving their instruments an aura from subtle shifting sensations, and doing it well enough to bring a listener back to their release either from a melody that gets stuck over and over in your head, or simply from music that is dark and somber as it is truly convincing.