Vikingtid og anarki

I am a fan of Black Metal, but I prefer things with more melody rather than a bunch of shit jumbled together and recorded with a toaster. Usually what I find from a lot of the newer Norwegian bands today is just a bunch of recycled material and a lack of originality, it's one thing if the classic bands did it, but just boring if everyone copies them. After all that is what black metal was originally about, more originality and something unique to the atmosphere of each band. What I like about this band Sorg Svart is this is a project that has it's own unique atmosphere instead of copycat shit, and I like that.

"Vikingtid og Anarki" is the second album of Sorg Svart a project comprised of one man, though the first material I heard by this band. Overall I enjoy the articulation and the musicianship that is presented, it's complexity makes it hard to believe one man performed all of it. Though I have to say on tracks like the self titled "Vikingtid Og Anarki" or "Bleivikmaen ein Haglandsfaen "; that while it has beautiful melodies, I'd say many are too short and not prolonged enough for the listener to get fully immersed but instead waiting for the next one. Though it changes constantly (maybe like 20 different riffs or so here and there), I like how it's not dangerously repetitive (basically what repels me from a lot of metal music).

Though I am not a fan of his political message, it reflects in the music that he is still influenced by Nordic Folk music and Nordic heritage. Sorg definitely puts a lot of effort in implementing traditional folk instruments into the music rather than all the instruments being synthesizers (not that there is anything wrong with that). The production is very good and consistent, so you don't have to worry about constantly adjusting the volume after every song (like a lot of black metal releases). The music has a lot of power and catchy melodies, even if you don't know the words, you'll find yourself wanting to sing along. I recommend it to those that like a Folk inspired black metal.

I picked up ‘Vikingtid og Anarki’ after a recommendation on, I believe, the black metal help thread here on the Archives. I seem to remember being promised an energetic and unique take on viking/black metal. While true, this promise has saddled me with a lesson in critical reading. Both terms, ‘energetic’ and ‘unique’, sound positive in themselves. Listening to this album just shows that you can put a positive spin on anything.

It’s not utterly horrible, let’s be clear about that. One cannot dispel the image of the artist (Sorg) as an uncontainable ball of activity, and the album as a whole stands alone as a distinct piece of work. Ideas are thrown at you faster than you catch them; the melodies jump out at you, one after the other; and, while he’s obviously got many influences, it’s not exactly easy to say that this album (again, as a whole) sounds like anything else you’ve ever heard.

But damn, this guy can’t write songs. That’s just it. Being attacked by a million successive melodies does not a good album make. Take the opener, title track ‘Vikingtid og Anarki’: an absolute clusterfuck of a song. It’s an utter mish-mash of black metal, viking metal, folk metal, power metal, and basically whatever else you can think of; but no melody or riff has the time to engage you and get you into the song, as it were. Successive melodies, quickly one after the other, and this goes on for eleven and a half minutes. At the end, you’ve not been taken anywhere, you’ve not experienced something ‘epic’; you’ve merely been subjected to disjointed tunes. It really doesn’t satisfy.

Track 2 is a nice acoustic instrumental and the listener wonders if things will settle down and we’ll get a collection of songs to follow the crazy opening track. Well, sort of. Track 3, ‘Heddersmann’ is about 35% decent melodic black metal in the vein of Windir, but the remainder consists of uninspiring ‘viking’ chants plus the abysmal climax which (I kid you not) is very reminiscent of American pop-punk. It sounds similar to ‘My Friends Over You’ by New Found Glory. Seriously. Not something a black metal album should ever sound like.

Track 4 ‘Trost’ is trying very hard to be melodic black metal, but it just goes wrong. It sounds emo. Sorry Sorg, but something has gone off here. ‘Bleivikmaen Ein Haglandsfaen’ is also a tease. It starts out as poor and extremely corny Satyricon worship, but does eventually reach a riff that wouldn’t sound out of place on the Storm [project of Satyr and Fenriz] album ‘Nordavind’. So there are parts which sound great, but they can never be enjoyed fully as they are invariably followed by sub-standard passages in which Sorg is clearly trying to provide an ‘epic viking atmosphere’. It just doesn’t work.

The cheesiness of ‘Krakaviso’ can hardly be described in words. This song could sum up the album, actually. Difficult to take seriously. I like a lot of albums which are difficult to take seriously, but what they have going for them is that they’re fun! You can headbang and shout along to them. You can’t headbang or shout along to ‘Vikingtid og Anarki’ because there’s no fucking time before the next melody comes along to interrupt you. A million ideas, very few of which work. Not a good album.

Review originally published at http://www.teethofthedivine.com by Erik Thomas

Here’s another one of Einheit Produktionen’s belated 2008 releases and while not as impressive as Andras’s Iron Way, Norway’s SorgSvart does offer a very unique and playful take on Viking/Pagan black metal.

Comprised of one man, Sorg (not Vintersorg’s Sorg), Vikingtid Og Anarki is actually his second album, but my first introduction to him, and to be honest I’m torn between really enjoying it, and thinking its just too much and too disjointed. The enjoyment hits right away with the 11 minute opening title track which covers the gamut from blazing black metal to (lots of) mouth harps, beer hall choirs, Swedish Chef (from the Muppets) vocals, female vocals, synths and everything in between. The disjointedness starts to occur around the 15 minute “Bleivikmaen ein Haglandsfaen”. To be honest, a comparison is almost impossible as Sorg culls from virtually every facet of every known pagan/folk/Viking metal band in existence.

However, this ambitious influx of influences often makes the material a bit over whelming if enjoyable, as it jumps for vast choral arrangements to melodic, bouncy Finnish folk, to black metal (”Hedersmann”), to acoustics (”Vikingtid Og Anarki (Instrumental)”, to sudden injections of epic atmospherics - all of them arriving suddenly and leaving just as quickly within seconds within a single song. For one 11 minute title track it’s listenable, but 8 songs and an hour later (especially the 15 minute “Bleivikmaen ein Haglandsfaen”, despite some cool solo work about 4 minutes in, it gets a bit silly about halfway in), it’s a bit of a jumble. Sorg can’t decide if he wants to be the “Viking of Anarchy” or something more playful, epic and amicable.

That all being said, Sorg is ambitious and talented with a ton of ideas, making an album that does not sound like a one man project despite the jumling of elements, sometimes hokey keys (’KrakAviso”, “Underligt Vidunderligt”) and flat production. His wide array of vocals are enjoyable and at times when he does settle down for more than a second or two it is rather enjoyable (”Hedersmann”, the very nicely done “Op Kamarat!”, “Trøst”), with a rather grin inducing sense of pagan joy.

I was kind of wary about purchasing this album. First off, I figured that it would be difficult to get my hands on, seeing as it's a one man show, and that there wouldn't be much circulation. Also, I was going on what one person said in the review they posted for this guy's last album. Seeing as I am new to the folk/black metal scene, I was quite interested to see what I would get because I did enjoy Vinterskugge by Isengard a great deal.

Thus, I bought the album and put it in my CD player and was lambasted with an aural masterpiece! The first song Vikingtid Og Anarki is an epic piece that, after the sounding of the viking horn, a fast-paced black metal track begins, and much to my surprise, it is extremely well produced! The way that the black metal pace led into the folky interludes kind of surprised me because they were stark, with no bridge, it just dropped you in there. Sorg used synth that definitely filled out the sound. The complexity of the songs, and the vast amount of instruments used by Sorg are mind-boggling.

All the other songs in this album are amazing as well. I just think that the first song was indicative of what the rest of the album was going to be like, and I listened with much enthusiasm. The next song, is an acoustic version of the first, without words and is short, only 2 minutes long. It is the instrumental portion of Vikingtid Og Anarki near the middle of the track.

Track number 3 is a similar sound with folk blended in with black and atmospheric black metal. The 4th track is an atmospheric song with excellent use of synth, and is only a few minutes long, but a nice interlude that leads into the 5th track.

Bleivikmaen ein Haglandsfaen is the longest on the album being over 15 minutes long. It follows the same vein as the first track, where it progresses distinctly from one variation of black metal to the next, frequently bouncing folk in and out and mixes up the pace nicely. Overall, another epic, and well-rounded song.

The last 3 tracks, ranging from 5-8 minutes in length are in the same style as the first 5. They all have distinctive folky sounds, and their melodies sound like what I would imagine a Norwegian folk song would sound like if played on traditional instruments.

Overall, this album is a must-have in my opinion. Anyone interested in black metal in general will find at least something in this album to appreciate, if not the entire thing. This is one of those albums that I can listen to straight through and not lose interest part of the way. A one-man band with such a complex sound with so many black metal variants molded together shows immense talent and the man deserves his dues. Nocturno Culto from Darkthrone praises the album and had assisted Sorg in the creation of the album. I find that to say a lot about this project, when one of the most influential and epic black metal bands ever put forth their efforts to promote a musician's dream.