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Ildjarn > Forest Poetry > Reviews
Ildjarn - Forest Poetry

Don't say "punk" - 78%

JamesStewart, August 18th, 2023
Written based on this version: 2021, 2 12" vinyls, Season of Mist Underground Activists (Limited edition, 2 colors, Reissue, Repress)

I had heard of Ildjarn as a legend of second wave black metal, described variously as one of the truest, purest, and most impenetrable artists going. So imagine my surprise when I finally check out the supposedly seminal 'Forest Poetry', and discover that it's basically black metal's older bastard lovechild with hardcore punk. You know, the one who has to eat fish heads in the cellar, whilst Ugra-Karma and The Codex Necro get to live downstairs with Marge and Homer.

If you think I'm being facetious, let's look at the evidence. Zero production values? Two chords played as fast as possible? 22 fairly similar songs that flail around for a bit, then disappear after 90 seconds? All check. The album rarely ever lets up from a simplistic battery of clattering drums (played so sloppily I'm not sure they can fairly be said to blast) and hyper distorted, twangy guitars. Even Ildjarns shrieks have a lower, more bellowing and guttural quality than is common the standard raw black metal style. If you want more confirmation, skip straight to the 20 minute mark on this album, where there is a whole procession of songs that illustrate these tendencies perfectly: even the riffs, which are here slightly more memorable, seem to break out into the world of crust and grind.

To clarify, this isn't meant as any kind of putdown on this album. I think that it does what it does well: it marries the anticonsumerist philosophy of black metal with the straight up aggression and admirable DIY ethos central to the authentic spirit of hardcore. The result is something that is truly obnoxious, abrasive, and almost unlistenable for the full runtime of the album. One suspects that the intent was to create something hideous, grating and repetitive, and cannot help but feel that in these terms the album is a roaring success.

Make no mistake, this album is an endurance test, and only for those who enjoy seeing the extremes into which "music" can be taken without stripping all meaning from the word completely. There is no let up, no respite and no moment of catharsis (only some riffs that are slightly more memorable than others, but I doubt this is truly deliberate). But for those people this album is an obvious touchpoint, and may cause some surprise when you think about the influences that went into creating something so obtuse and authentic to the spirit of black metal.

Lastly, I bumped this album up 3 points because the cover art is simply excellent and reflects the music within perfectly.

Separates The Men From The Boys - 90%

The_Mortuary, April 16th, 2022
Written based on this version: 2013, CD, Season of Mist Underground Activists (Reissue)

This album in my opinion absolutely separates the men from the boys. This album is one of the most impenetrable albums to exist and I like it that way. This album takes a very simplistic/minimalist approach to black metal; because of its simplicity however it is very hypnotic and easy to get lost in. The guitars beat you into a trance using some fast tremolo picking that tend to transition into some slower riffs that really keep this album interesting, while they seemingly bleed together this simply isn't the case. They're simple riffs true, but that's what makes this album so good is that the simplicity of the riffs keep you in a daze and take you exactly where the album wants to lead you, down a frost bitten forest. These riffs aren't melodic, they aren't rhythmic, they are a never ending rain of frozen rain pummeling your ears, using nothing but minor scales and chords. Adding to that are the drums that are reminiscent of getting caught up in a whirlwind of hate, seriously, they are pulverizing in their simplicity yet epic in their execution. The blast beats assist in beating you down with it's frozen hate, there's no fancy fills, no frills, just straight up brutality in the form of percussion. This album, while simplistic, is very well done based solely on the fact that he put more emphasis in other places, mainly the atmosphere and feeling of this album. This isn't a grandiose album taking you on a wonderful journey through darkened forests or billowing fjords, this is an album encased in ice and hate, that spawned a completely new genre that’s rife with great artists.

Mixing is also one of this album's highlights, and by mix I mean the dollar store Sony Walkman he recorded this on. It compliments the caveman-like hypnotic soundscape it's going for; making this one of the album's highlights. The twangy guitars honestly make this an absolute blast to listen to because of the fact that it actually makes the guitars even more sinister and dynamic. The blast beats you hear on this are sloppy as hell and it WORKS, there's no reason everything has to be clean all the time, this is RAW BLACK METAL. This isn't Marduk, and this isn't At The Heart of Winter (which Peter ruined). This is an entire genre in and of itself that starts with this band here and what an absolutely great start. Listen to this album and make the judgement for yourself and most importantly let this album grow on you; you may not get it the first time or the second but it's worth giving multiple chances to. I know this is a big transition for a lot of people but it's one absolutely worth making because this is such a gem.

Revelation through monotony - 85%

we hope you die, November 6th, 2018

Speaking of raw black metal, have you heard of Ildjarn? After a brief stint in Norwegian death metallers Thou Shalt Suffer with the future members of Emperor, Ildjarn went solo with his own raw black metal/minimalist ambient project. After Varg Vikernes he would prove to be one of the most divisive artists to come out of the Norwegian scene. Very little is known about Ildjarn the man other than his acute misanthropy. His creative output saw a high volume of releases in the mid-1990s, of various EPs, demos, and full lengths, sometimes joined by long-time collaborator Niddhogg. ‘Forest Poetry’ released in 1996 was the fourth of his solo LPs released in the space of two years. It saw him consolidate his unbearably raw and minimal take on black metal further, and proved to be the ultimate dead end for this overly bespoke style.

You will be lucky to get more than three chords in a track on ‘Forest Poetry’, with the guitar and bass distorted beyond reason. Drums play….sometimes fast…sometimes slow….vocals are…distorted, there’s really not much more to say. For nearly an hour this album does everything it can to alienate even veterans of noise. Let’s be clear, there is more extreme music out there. It’s not the fastest, most distorted, it’s not even the most abrasive in terms of production values. The music is made of the most basic and familiar of building blocks, like a computer designed to create music from a highly limited data set. The result is a twisted parody of something we feel is familiar reflected back at us in the most horrific way imaginable. There are zero dynamics, zero variation, just constant, abrasive chords, pounding yet underwhelming drums, and raspy vocals.

But occasionally, very occasionally, a harmony rises just above the cacophony of noise. And no matter how insultingly basic this harmony is, its effect after such extended periods of sonic torture is akin to putting the hammer down after hours of knocking yourself on the head with it. This is a staple method of album construction for Ildjarn, and it reaches fruition on ‘Forest Poetry’. It overpowers the listener with the underwhelming foundation of something approximating music, packaged in the most torturous aesthetic possible.

Now I know why people don’t like the experience of an Ildjarn album, and are all too often tempted to claim that people like me are manufacturing an artistic and intellectual experience from his music where none is to be had. But the message of Ildjarn is not one of ‘purity’, ‘integrity’ or a representation of organic nature. The message of Ildjarn is a rumination on the banal, the unbearable monotony of existence. Extraordinary things happen so rarely, maybe once or twice in a lifetime, a fact that leaves so many of us dissatisfied with our lot no matter how convenient our lives become.

The music of Ildjarn is tedious, simple, repetitive, and sometimes unbearably abrasive, but just occasionally a light shines forth, and this rare contrast throws into sharp relief the power that music can have. In order to come to this realisation, Ildjarn must first bring us to the point of insanity at just how monotonously boring music can be, before building us back up, lifting us out of the sick parody he created. He makes us see the great stretches of normality’s torture that lie before us, punctuated by the ever present anticipation of revelation lurking in each moment.

This tearing down of the human condition by way of a draconian musical ideology can only happen once. The point has been made by Ildjarn’s music. It is not improved on by Brooklyn hipsters getting hold of a copy of ‘Forest Poetry’ and rehashing the noise through the meaningless lens of whatever critical theory degree they are studying. It is not lent any extra intellectual weight by picking and choosing favoured elements in a transparent attempt to distinguish modern American black metal from the ‘hate’ and ‘negativity’ of the European old guard. Talentless hack or one of extreme metal’s genuinely unique minds, Ildjarn’s music had a message all too often misunderstood by advocates of both views.

Originally published for: Hate Meditations

“You need a high IQ to understand Rick and Morty” - 34%

Wilytank, March 21st, 2018

I find it extremely suspect when people praise attitude and being "genuine" over actual musical quality. Whenever I see anyone using those or similar terms as positive traits on a black metal album, some red flags pop up. I'll admit to listening to and enjoying some weird stuff that isn't for everyone, but if straight black metal attitude and being "trve and kvlt" (unironically labeling something as this is a giant red flag) is all that's important, then Zarach 'Baal' Tharagh, Tank Genocide, and countless awful bedroom NSBM projects would be regularly lauded as the best bands in the genre. As it is, this is the main draw for many people who like Ildjarn and his biggest album Forest Poetry, but Forest Poetry sounds less like a real album and more like a 52 minute compilation of demos that were recorded in the same session.

And frankly, that's all this is: an oversized demo, nothing more. The twangy guitars sound like they were recorded in a washing machine, each of the twenty-two songs has like two riffs max (and none of them are at all memorable), the drums sound like repetitive crashing, and there's no real flow to this album. Only the final track "No Place Nowhere" really feels like it fits where it is just by virtue of being a calmer track to end the album with and actually ends with a fade out instead of an abrupt end like the rest of the tracks. The rest of the track order could be shuffled up in any conceivable way and the flow would not change at all.

If this really were a collection of like six demos with like 4-5 tracks each, the musical choices would make a lot more sense. It was released on Norse League Productions, a label strictly used for Ildjarn and his related projects; so in some roundabout way, it could be seen as a self-released demo. But if this is supposed to be one whole album, a singular idea, there's a pretty big problem: why is this 52 minutes long? Something that sounds as simple as this ought to have its duration cut in half at the very least. The songs just don't sound distinct enough to hold interest for that long. It would make no difference at all if half these songs weren't on this album. If you just rolled a d20 die ten times and removed the corresponding results from the track list, it would be an improvement because I don't understand why anyone would want to sit through the entirety of the album as it is.

So who is this for? Probably people who think a black metal album is arbitrarily better just because it was recorded outside in a forest somewhere in Norway. There's a lot of people who claim there's deeper atmosphere and feeling to Forest Poetry, but there's nothing to get here. It's an overglorified, overlong black metal demo and it's silly to think of it as anything more than that.

Ildjarn - Forest Poetry (re-issue) - 80%

Witchfvcker, April 24th, 2014

Vidar Våer, better known as Ildjarn, is one of the most musically divisive characters of the early 90s Norwegian black metal scene. Before he launched his solo-project, he played bass with Ihsahn and Samoth in Thou Shalt Suffer, and even did a live-stint with Emperor. As a recording artist, Ildjarn is both hailed as a visionary and derided as an untalented hack who happened to be at the right place at the right time. His discography has recently been reissued by Season Of Mist, giving old and new listeners a chance to experience the rawest and angriest albums that have ever come out of Norway.

Forest Poetry was originally released in 1996, and consists of 22 tracks of sheer aural hatred. With an average song length of two minutes, this album takes the cold rawness of early Darkthrone and adds a gutter punk recklessness. Sounding like a demo recorded on a cheap cassette-player, Ildjarn is what Burzum might have turned out as if he never expanded his sound beyond the Aske tape. The DIY-sound is completed by songs ending abruptly and the drum count-offs being left on the final recordings. The whole racket is spearheaded with increasingly aggressive bass-lines and Ildjarn’s raspy screeching.

Clocking in at 52 minutes, listening through Forest Poetry can be an arduous task. The effort is not wasted, however, and there are great riffs buried in the constant barrage of hostility. While not a particularly accomplished musician by any stretch of the imagination, Ildjarn takes the grim ferocity of black metal to its crude logical conclusion. It’s definitely an acquired taste, and would be a terrible introduction to the genre, as Forest Poetry is pure unfiltered sonic warfare. The unfettered harshness would later be emulated by countless latecomers, but few have been able to reach the authenticity of Ildjarn. Laying the foundation for many hopelessly uninspired one-man bands, Ildjarn stands out by tapping into something feral with his necrotic music.

The punishing sounds of Forest Poetry means that it’s not likely to be in anyone’s heavy rotation. In spite of, or perhaps because of this, it’s a rarely matched handiwork of unpolished energy and misanthropy. Despite the naysayers, Ildjarn has earned his place as a peripheral underground legend. While his later ambient work may have seen more praise,Forest Poetry is a semi-classic of the genre, but with a understandably very limited appeal.


Written for The Metal Observer

Muddled in jagged sonic obscurity. - 71%

hells_unicorn, November 27th, 2012

One could argue that in the latter days of the 2nd wave in Norway, there was an unofficial contest between Burzum and Ildjarn over who could produce the absolute lowest fidelity piece of antinomian minimalism possible. Ultimately, as evidenced by the particular album that came towards the tail end of Ildjarn's black metal oriented period, the latter ended up winning out, though one can't help but note that an album built up of pure disregard for accessibility will fold before its rival in every other department. While this reclusive, forest-dwelling hermit can't really be faulted for how his unbalanced dichotomy between black metal and ambient music came out, it can be clearly stated that like any other novelty, the enraged rebellion against sonic convention that manifests itself in "Forest Poetry" wears a bit thin after the initial impact.

To put it bluntly, impact is the only thing that this album attempts to go for, and this is accomplished through a very raw, nasty, distorted barrage of droning anthems with semi-comedic and heavily cliché steeped titles. Any mode of differentiation in terms of instrumentation, tempo, timbre or song structure is minimized all but to the point of non-existence, leaving a jagged collection of different length pieces to a highly distorted puzzle that culminates in about 52 minutes of uniform animosity. The vocal character of Ildjarn is somewhat comparable to Nocturno Culto's trollish mutterings, though a bit more garbled and extremely low in the mix. The entire presentation is about as disjointed as a typical early 90s black metal demo, and even includes a high frequency of drum count ins, adding to the subtle yet very present "stream of consciousness" feel that exists from beginning to end on here.

The uniqueness of this, even considering the company it kept with in 2nd wave, is such that only a tenuous familiarity can be found among 2 well recognized albums that were released in close proximity to it. The uniformity of tempo and the droning character of the chords is somewhat in line with that of "Transylvanian Hunger", though this has a lot less melodic consonance to it and sounds more like shivering timbers of a falling tree than a cold blast of arctic frost. Similarly, the extremely nasty character does seem to challenge the bleak feel of "Filosofem", but again the sense of melody is extremely distant and the production sound has more of a popping character here rather than a fuzz-drenched river of solemn sorrow. The relationship is about as distant as can be, yet it wouldn't be out of line to infer some level of influence upon this work by those 2, to varying degrees.

The accessibility factor is this album's greatest weakness, or perhaps its greatest strength, it all depends on what sort of hatred one feels and how one thinks it should be directed musically. But while the mystique of this album might seem initially appealing, it falls into a similar trap common to a number of earlier so-called black metal classics like "Pure Fucking Armageddon" and the infamous early Beherit demos, which is that after a handful of listens there isn't really much to go on. It will only appeal to a very specific and limited audience, and will most likely come off as pure musical gibberish to anyone else. It will either sink in deep and be a regular favorite, or be unbearable after the 2nd song ends, and most likely the lion's share of people even within the generic black metal scene will fall into the latter category. It's either the cult of cults, or a skip-worthy work of musical dadaism. Take your pick.

I hate hipster black metal - 3%

The_Ghoul, November 23rd, 2012

Honestly, for years, I thought Ildjarn was a joke. Only upon reading reviews for his work on Metal Archives do I find out that many people take this man seriously. This seriously must be a massive in-joke, with people writing glowing reviews with the sole intention of deceiving the reader into listening to garbage like this. That MUST be the reason why Ildjarn repeatedly gets 90% or higher reviews. I just refuse to believe that people can be such hipsters that they will throw their support behind such unabashedly crap music.

Normally, when I review music, I think about what the creator of the music intended when he (or she) created the music. This, however, is not applicable here. Because the only conclusion I can come up with is that Ildjarn intended to create crap. In that sense, he succeeded. That's why Forest Poetry gets a 3% instead of a 0 percent, because he definitely succeeded here. This is utter crap, and I can never force myself to rate crap highly. I am a VERY open-minded listener, MUCH more so than I used to be, and I honestly gave this one hell of a chance to grow on me. Still, to this day, I cannot listen to more than a minute or so at a time without wanting to cut my ears off. I guess that's good, since most songs are blissfully short, but that's NEVER a good thing.

In fact, I've heard noisegrind bands with a more appealing sound than this. The production sounds as if Ildjarn took a computer microphone, hung it from the ceiling, and recorded all tracks with that microphone. To me, this is a satire of black metal, much more so than being black metal itself. The name of the album, Forest Poetry, is about as generic of a black metal album name as you can get, and all the song titles are equally generic. And true to the nature of satire, it takes the worst flaws of black metal (unmusicality and horrid production) and takes them past their logical extreme. I would, then, rate this higher than 3%, since I do love satire, except that this is not funny. It's just annoying. I can pretty much describe this entire album in one sentence: Fake-sounding blastbeats with horribly distorted and recorded guitars repeating boring and stupid riffs ad infinitum with distorted vocals and an overall very sloppy performance.

I could end my review there, since that's the entire summation of what happens here. It sounds like VON, but with way worse production and way worse performance. Furthermore, since to the best of my knowledge, VON was a joke, there is no way I can take Ildjarn's Forest Poetry (or any of his discography, really) seriously. I guess this is a joke, and the joke is on the fans who actually pay money on this. Here's a little perspective for you: Ildjarn probably made this whole thing in a couple days, and spent 0 money on making it. This proves that with the right packaging and the right philosophy, fans will eat up ANYTHING.

I tried my hardest to find a reason to rate this high, and to find a reason why anybody would rate this high. I mean, I try to avoid reviewing styles/genres that I don't care for, and I do love raw black metal (Hate Forest, anyone?) and I tried with all my effort to see why Ildjarn could get anything approaching the accolades he gets. The only conclusion I can come up with is the bandwagon effect: it's cool within the extreme black metal circles to like Ildjarn, since it's "obscure" and "kvlt" sounding. That's the only explanation I can come up with, because there is nothing to like here. This is not raw, this is not kvlt, this is CRAP. There's a difference. Mutiilation was raw. Arkha Sva is raw. This is just crap; pure, unadulterated, crap. This is not black metal, this is not "tr00", this is just crap.

Forest Poetry honestly reminds me of dadaist art, which often consisted of defacing classic works of art or creating unabashed crap. Likewise, the only people who liked dadaist art were the hipsters of the time who pretty much only liked it because it was cool. Just like how dadaist "art" really isn't art all that much, Forest Poetry isn't really music all that much. It's an attempt to make something as raw and unproduced as possible. The flaw in that equation is that Forest Poetry is pretty much unlistenable.

So while I must say that Ildjarn pretty much succeeded at what he was trying to do, i.e. make the most horrid sounding black metal ever, I'm gonna quote something my father said to me a lot when I was a little kid: "Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD." There is no reason why Forest Poetry should've been made, no reason why it deserves this kind of packaging and label support, and no reason why anybody should pay their hard earned money on this. Anybody who actually has to work a job for their money (instead of getting it from their parents/family) should be insulted that Ildjarn wants us to spend money on this. This took absolutely no talent or time to make. It's an insult to the listener and a joke on anyone who is enough of a sap to pay money for this. Normally I don't see why low ratings are justified, but in this case, it's sorely justified.

The True Anthems of the Forest... - 100%

TrooperOfThrash, June 18th, 2007

Ildjarn achieved what most of the entire Norwegian black metal scene had been trying to do for over a decade with this release. There is little, if any, melody, structure, harmony, or traditional musical elements. Guitar, vocals, drums, and possibly bass are all mashed together in short songs that challenge the listener to keep up with the harsh intensity.

Songs consist of a few repeated powerchords, a very simple drum beat, and Ildjarn's raw and rageful screams. There is little variation from track to track besides the riff order and tempo. Describing the music itself is fairly pointless; only by listening can one understand Ildjarn's music.

Legendary for his misanthropy, Forest Poetry exemplifies Ildjarn's ideals and attitude towards music. A rejection of everything traditional, this album is nothing more than straightforward "black metal" without the folk influences of Ulver or the ambient of Burzum. The images conjured up while listening to such tracks as "Sinking Deep" or "Deeping in Grey" are those of cold winter nights, frost covered hills, a lonely traveler hiking through dark Norsk woods. Forest Poetry is, at its core, pure. And with this comes a certain beauty that is lacking in even the giants of Norwegian black metal like Darkthrone and Emperor.

Often railed against for its terrible production, this album certainly does not excel in that field and makes "Det Som Engang Var" sound like the next Top 40 single. Perhaps Ildjarn was trying to further his "grim" and "kvlt" image or perhaps he just used what resources he had; the end result is the same either way. Forest Poetry is a trip down a long and winding road that entrances the listener from the first step and does not let up until the journey ends.

Almost completely stupid - 10%

webermg, March 1st, 2007

Ildjarn's solo output is the kind of stuff made for elitist black metal fans. It's almost uniformly terrible, but so raw and inaccessible that any dislike can just be chalked up to not 'understanding' it. For my part, I would be convinced that Ildjarn is just a joke making fun of black metal if not for Sort Vokter, which he was involved in, and which totally ruled (and of course, which only made one album).

I remember reading something in which Ildjarn described his songwriting process. I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure he mentioned that the process took very little time. Well, you get what you pay for. Every song on here sounds the same. In a lot of cases, I think they actually are the same. There's really not much more to say than that. 2-3 minutes is the average song length, but theres enough of them to make like 50 minutes of this crap. It takes a Herculean effort of the will just to sit through it.

And the production...my god. Is he trying to kill me? It's unbearably loud and harsh. My brain hurts just thinking about it. Other Ildjarn albums are not near this annoying in the production department, mainly going for tinny rather than dense. The music still sucks, but at least it's bearable to actually listen to it.

So why ten points? The album title of course. Whatever Ildjarn's faults, lack of a sense of humor is not one of them.

necrotic black trance punk... - 90%

meganerd, April 7th, 2006

Really, this is hardly black metal anymore. There has always been a strange bounciness in the music of Ildjarn which distanced it from the rest of the genre, but here the dance / techno rhythmic style is enhanced by an emphasis on the kick drum and hi hat alternating with an understated snare. It produces a unique sound to be sure. Aesthetically, this is probably the peak of Ildjarn's musical legacy. Disgustingly abraded, but still (mostly) audible, the music clambers on (is that even a word?) with a much greater sense of strength than the artist's earlier works. Even so, this is definetely the most accessible of Ildjarn's solo works, with songs like Whispering Breeze and Chill of the Night seeming almost catchy, in a horrendously twisted punkish techno-ish Ildjarn sort of way. Then though, there are songs like Midnight Interval and Descending which definetely push at the boundaries of emotional depth through the sickening mutations of their dark simple melodies. Still though, this album is conceptually light compared to Det Frysende Nordiriket, and not nearly as enjoyable overall as the Ildjarn - Nidhogg collaboration material. Still highly recommended for sure, if nothing else for the feeling of the filterless blind freedom of a child haphazardly beating on pots and pans in the living room, that this album conjures up. It's a good feeling, really.

I guess I should comment that, in comparison particularly to "Det Frysende Nordiriket," this work is probably the most consistent of Ildjarn's output. There are no jarring changes to the production, all the tracks make sense together, and there aren't any dramatic style shifts like in "Strength and Anger." For this reason, it might be a good one to start with, although I don't know how many times I've heard the complain, "this is going to go on for an hour??" Perfect music to torture devout muslim Iraqi insurgents with...

A Forest Dwelling Poet - 95%

Machinebreath, August 15th, 2005

These days it is difficult to define what exactly Black Metal is for this genre has branched out into sub-genres and sub-sub-genres even. I describe Ildjarn’s music as a hybrid of Norwegian Black Metal and Hardcore Punk aggression. Ildjarn had stripped down his version of Black Metal into its very basic form. Production-wise the album was recorded with a rusty 4 track machine, low tech and ugly. There is not much variety in his style and his song structures are quite simple, mechanical and monotonous that it is almost hypnotic. He seems to be repeating himself over and over in every song with his primitive rhythms, droning strings and to what sounds like a programmed drum machine, but it is not say that he lacks talent, but to my opinion he intended it to sound that way to express himself in a misanthropic manner. I would rather listen to this than a heavily orchestrated group such as Cradle of Filth. A factor that sets Black Metal Artists apart from their Death Metal colleagues is that Black Metalers tend to appreciate Mother Nature. It is apparent that Black Metalers had composed songs that are dedicated to winter, wildlife, forest, mountains, nighttime, stars and the moon. Ildjarn is no exception, with the title of this album alone “Forest Poetry” testifies his inclination to nature rather than the subjects of satanism or death. The average song last about 2 minutes, the first printing released in 1996 contains 22 tracks, the latest edition released by Northern Heritage has a dozen bonus tracks and last for more than 70 minutes. To the majority this album would be regarded as nothing but noise but to an aficionado of the rawest form of Black Metal, Ildjarn is music to his ears literally.

Ildjarn - Forest Poetry - 90%

altered_state, February 13th, 2005

First off, as many people have mentioned, this album almost has the worst production I've ever heard on something that's been officially released, only surpassed by the 8 track version of Vlad Tepes' La Morte Lune and maybe Mayhem's Pure Fucking Armageddon. I've heard live gigs and rehearsal bootlegs that have better sound quality than this. However, I believe this was done deliberately. Why do I think this? Well, I have pretty much every Ildjarn release out there and most, including the earlier releases and demos, have better production than this. Now, you may ask, what would be the point in having a deliberately shitty, or so called "raw", production? Well, this album is the most ferocious, angry, bestial and violent assault on the listener I've ever heard (save for the following Ildjarn album, Strength And Anger) and the production is key to this. The guitars have little sustain (almost no compression for those familiar with guitar or recording terms), are very scratchy and sounds like Ildjarn is playing them his hardest and yet struggling to get a constant stream of distortion out of them. The bass is very distorted, sometimes almost taking the guitars traditional place. Indeed, at times the guitar is simply left out letting the bass pound on. Despite the deceptively simple nature of Ildjarn, the bass does not always follow the guitar as one might expect such a project to do. It does have it's own melody sometimes, occasionally adding a bit of discordance to the already horrific mix, adding that extra little bit of anger and hatred to things. The vocals are fairly distorted and are usually buried quite low in the mix beneath everything else. The drums are just there to keep time as it were, almost serving no purpose than to keep the beat, yet the symbols do at times add more distortion to the mix. I don't think there are even any snare rolls as in some of the tracks on Det Frysende Nordariket and Son Of The Northstar, if there were, I missed them, or they were covered by the distortion.

You may think that all Ildjarn is doing is writing some shitty three chord riffs and using the minimalist label to hide his musical shortcomings. Yet when you listen to some of the songs more carefully, you will notice that a surprising amount of care and skill has gone into writing and recording these songs. The most notable being the ones mentioned above, the use of the bass guitar to get extra discordance and using symbols as extra devices to achieve more distortion.


After recording this album and the improvised, spontaneous Landscapes, Ildjarn decided to try and better the ferocity of this album with Strength And Anger. It did what it said on the tin, and indeed bettered this album in terms of sheer violence, yet lacked some of the musical quality that can be found on this release. Hence, this is my favourite Ildjarn release. And yes, incase you were wondering, the session tracks on the re-release are more of the same, just minus the vocals.


As a side note, a couple of the songs/riffs on this album were later borrowed or slightly changed and re-recorded for Sort Vokter's Folkloric Necro Metal album e.g. Chill Of The Night (Returning) was the starting point for Ni Gygrer/Nattjakt. I think of Sort Vokter as a more clinical (well produced), mysterious version of this album, as in terms of song writing, they are fairly similar.

Primitive/Good..but bad in places - 60%

WhenWolvesReturn, October 23rd, 2004

This is (overall) a good album, definitely worth the money it costs to buy a copy. However, about 40% of the songs on it are total trash.

There's a big difference between taking recording to an extreme, and just being a douchebag with a four-track; these guys seem to like being the latter. This album is by far the worst recorded piece of black metal ever, (and no matter how "tr00" this makes it, it doesn't make it good at all!). A few saving graces are that this album does have melody and tone to it, and they do invoke a sense of power and anger within the listener, although in some songs the anger comes from the shitty sound of the tape.

Anyway, it really isn't a bad release, but one irk I have with anything Ildjarn does is that it's either well recorded lo-fi type stuff, or BAD recorded lo-fi stuff, unfortunately, a lot of this album gets classified with the BAD.

The drums are okay, the bass is nothing, and the rest is just crap, the vocals do come out in the mix to be harsh, and I love that, the timing's also dead on; but the rest of it just clashes.

Essential - 92%

Emperor_lucifer, September 11th, 2004

Ildjarn is one of the ugliest, rawest and most primitive Black Metal bands of all time, and this, his second full length is one of his best works ever. Here you will find almost an hour of pure sonic hatred in its most extreme form: raw sounding guitars, pounding bass, harsh vocals and skull crushing drums blend to create pure hatred in the form of music. Most people think that Ildjarn’s albums are pointless noise, but actually the music is well structured and organized, it’s just that in your first listen you won’t notice the brilliance behind this. Just imagine a more extreme version of early Bathory mixed with the song structures of bands like VON. Here are also some instrumental songs that are very interesting and add atmosphere to the album, and if this wasn’t long enough, the tape version includes some bonus material reaching the total of 26 tracks. If you like dirty, raw (Darkthrone sounds polished compared to this) Black Metal, “Forest Poetry” is an essential release.