Atavismus des Glaubens

From an ideological standpoint, I can’t really get excited about the whole sub-genre within a sub-genre touting the failed early 20th century farce that helped to spawn WWII, any more than I would some other political band call for the restoration of the Shogunate or the Ottoman Sultans. It’s not so much that I harbor the same sort of rabid yet hypocritical PC hostility towards certain ridiculous opinions while making excuses for others (genocide is genocide, regardless to whether its Jews or Ukrainian peasants being butchered), but more that it seems pointless to cling to the philosophical equivalent of a square shaped wheel.

This is all a relevant issue because a good chunk of Bilskirnir’s distinctiveness as a project is wrapped up in this ideological sub-species of black metal that is, to maybe a small degree, inspired by Varg Vikernes’ own nationalistic fervor in various interviews and written publications. Take this away from this similarly oriented one-man project and it’s somewhat well-know 2nd full length “Atavismus Des Glaubens” and what remains is a slightly clearer and crisper version of “Filosofem”, minus the keyboard ambient instrumental and plus a slightly more extreme foray of agonizing shrieks and wails that make one wonder if Widar is puking up his own lungs while recording the vocals.

One thing is clear from the get go, Widar definitely has his eye on a more droning version of this style, albeit one where the melodic contour is still somewhat varied and possessed of that mystique that Burzum consistently brings to the table. It particularly shows in the two 9 minute plus songs that close this thing out, where the usual mixture of broken chords and parallel guitar harmonies that populate rawer sounding black metal are presented in a mostly by the book fashion, yet manage to leave a fairly lasting impression. It’s not quite enough to inspire an immediate repetition of the experience in the listener through another go around, but it is sufficient to be interesting while it’s going on.

By the standards of most albums I’m aware of in this style (discounting the ideological underpinnings and dealing with all bands that sound raw and low-fi), this is pretty average. It’s not something that can really hold a candle to Burzum’s classic works and even falls well short of the slightly less potent version of Varg’s output post-incarceration, but that’s what it mostly sounds like it’s trying to do. But in the interest of freedom of speech and information, I won’t discourage anyone from checking this out. Anyone who believes in creating racial and cultural uniformity through forceful acts will get his or her validation from somewhere else regardless, and given all the other ridiculous things people choose to believe in that are far more popular, it won’t screw the world up much more than it already is.

Virtually anything can be called black metal these days provided it has raw production and screams, it seems.

Complete disregard for quality and immensely poor taste seems to be highly dominant among NSBM musicians, considerably so in fact compared to black metal without nazi themes. It's difficult to say whether its due to the inherent idiocy of anyone clinging to such thoroughly retarded ideology in this age and day, or whether it's perceived by utterly talentless neonazis to be an easy soapbox for their haywire ideologies (consequentially their products have a sure market of drooling cretins willing to buy any recording with their ridiculous beliefs stamped on it regardless of its musical value). Quite often these Hitler-lovers bring out the worst aspects of black metal in their bedroom projects, elements so jarringly outrageous that most casual black metal listeners would find it hard to comprehend that such a degree of idiocy is even possible to exist in the form of audio. While many elements of complete suckage are outright common in the black metal created by the internet generation, including abnormally terrible production, atrocious musicianship, complete lack of proper material, or utter disregard of intensity and power in music, it is especially common for NSBM musicians to not only outright embellish such failings, but often several of them at once, and to astonishingly great extents. Let that be an introduction to the Bilskirnir album ”Atavismus des Glaubens”.

It's not completely astonishing that this band has received the amount of fame that it has despite being involved with a highly scorned ideology. It's rather easy to see why the music is praised by some, and it's not completely impossible to imagine it achieving great emotional response in the exceptionally simpleminded listener. After all, the riffing is very catchy and melodic, and very upbeat in a genuine way, reminiscent of East-European folk music. The riffs' folkish qualities are similar to those heard in vaguely folk-influenced bands entertaining half-drunken pub crowds with asinine renditions of popular rock or folk songs, and the guitar tone is even similar. The chord progressions are uncomfortably fast-rotating and extremely predictable – generally devised after the usual clichés of rock, and also extensively heard in Greek black metal. The drumming consists of basic rock beats solely, some of them in triplets, with the cymbals changing predictably. All the distortion and loudness that the guitars lack can be found in the vocals (apparently a distortion pedal was used). These screams tend to appear in very predictable places, in a very predictable form. Though in some tracks like ”By Fire, Midgard Shall Be Cleansed”, there are changes in pace amidst of the horribly dull, predictable mid-paced drivel, the vast majority of the album has the same degree of variety as mid-era Burzum, that is, virtually none. While even individual riffs are astonishingly generic, predictable and uninspiring, the overall value of the music is minimal. The material is immensely unentertaining; almost depressively boring. None of the music is genuinely melancholic or lethargic, but the effect of the music after the initial two or three tracks is crippling. ”Restitution” is an interlude of sorts featuring repetitive, spurious ”sorrowful” melodies and unfitting screams, overall sounding like a sped-up Burzum parody. ”In Cosmic Source”, on the other hand, is a not sped-up Burzum parody. Some songs are listenable, while others like ”Abschied” are thoroughly unacceptable and appalling. The colourless, vapid and immensely counterfeit pseudo-emotive riffing always drudges endlessly; a pointless, detuned guitar lead sometimes contributes to the pointless, detuned guitar riffs, the drums play uninteresting rock beats, and some nazi cretin screams into a cheap microphone with a distortion pedal.

”Atavismus des Glaubens” is a dreadfully tiresome album, especially considering its length of mere thirtythree minutes. There's very little reason for any self-respecting friend of music to involve himself with this album of blatantly talentless, insipid idiocy. While it might not be the most repugnant slab of feces to be excreted from the bowels of the NSBM community – competition for that title is remarkably tough – it displays to remarkable extent exactly the kind of cockeyed, cretinous aesthetics that run rampant among neonazi black metal musicians. It's not the musical equivalent of a cockslap to the face, but it's pretty damn laughable anyway. To be avoided.

Bilskirnir are one of the more consistently good bands in the modern German black metal scene. Comprised of a single member it is admirable that all instruments are covered by him and that there is no resorting to studio magic or synthesized instruments. The drumming is not exactly a marvel, but it is still preferable to a drum machine, and of course to the overly triggered sound of modern metal drumming. The whole album has a rather organic feel in the area of production (except the vocals have to either have distortion added or are clipping) with little done to alter the sound of the instruments as far as effects and mastering goes. The result is favorable, because the recording is distinct and instruments are clear in the mix but still has the primitive rough sound to it that bands like Moonblood exploited to new heights.

The strongest aspect of Bilskirnirs music is the strong harmonies that appear in every song. The guitars are often in a very melodic harmony, which at times give an epic sound to the riffing (such as the main riff in restitution). Very solid work that definitely compensates for the simplicity of the drum work and sits nicely in the mid tempo range. Rhythmically the drums provide the drive that moves the songs along and keeps everything moving toward the next section, with small fills signaling riff changes and vocals entrances.

Vocals are another strong point of the release. They are very harsh and definitely dominant in the mix, yet they do not overpower the guitar work and generally are sparse and drawn out. The vocals are rhythmically very sparse and increase the epic feel of the riffs, with phrasing similar to Varg on Black Spell of Destruction. They also convey the lyrical themes well, as the epic quality alludes to the pagan themes while the hateful energy put into them clearly increases the intent of the N.S. themes in the lyrics.

Clean guitars also appear sparsely, slightly out of tune, but somehow this helps contribute to the organic production. It feels like a very well done self production, everything is distinct, but not isolated from the other instruments which too often happens in the studio. Structurally the album is diverse enough to quickly bore listeners into the usual verse/chorus routine, which is substantially caused by the vocal work. Another factor in this is the inclusion of guitar leads between sections and clean passages in the music (which are very short and not overdone or drawn out).

Especially recommended to fans of Burzum and Moonblood, fans of raw but not monotone black metal will definitely enjoy this one.