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Raven Dark > Verdandi > Reviews
Raven Dark - Verdandi

No-frills and very lean recording, a modest debut - 67%

NausikaDalazBlindaz, February 3rd, 2008

"Verdandi" is one of two albums recorded by Russian NSBM band Raven Dark in 1997, the other being "Berustet av Kriegsdronnet" - both albums have now been issued as a double album on one CD in the wake of Raven Dark main man Ulv Gegner Irminsson's death in 2005. "Verdandi" is a modest first album for this project and is pretty much strict minimalist thrumming BM played at a speed that gives the songs a flowing if rather severe military feel; the experimentation that sometimes appear on other recordings done by the Blazebirth Hall group of bands that include Raven Dark, Forest and some others doesn't appear on "Verdandi" so this album is not as distinctive and individual perhaps as those that came before and after it.

Even so the six tracks here make a strong impression as very wintry and aggressive pieces with surprising indications of drama and emotion. "Enturned Doomwanderer" sets the style with surging riffs that have a sinister air and which don't vary a lot until about halfway through when the song changes key. Vocals by Kaldrad are so distant that the listener will get lost trying to follow them and is best advised to just let the music and atmosphere surge over their heads and into their minds. I have the double album release which prints the lyrics in both Russian and English, and the lyrics in English show apocalyptic subject matter and bleak images of death and ruin, yet there is a defiant attitude and even a joy in anticipating future warfare and just fighting for its own sake and for the glory it brings.

"To Wide Open Hathall" rushes by in similar pouring-rain trance-like BM minimalist style which all but drowns the vocals and renders the rhythms as barely-there subterranean humps. With the third track "To Eclipse the Sun", we get a slower, even sedate rhythm and more variety in the riffs and some actual melodies. It's possible the musicians used folk melodies in this track and maybe some of their other songs as "To Eclipse ..." has some heroic-sounding tunes that make it one of the better tracks here. Following up, "Into Horizonless Far Dark Embraces" retreats to the speedy business-like BM of the earlier tracks in its first half but once it starts changing key, it becomes a much more dramatic and dynamic song with an air of melancholy and tragic heroism in its tones and I swear I can almost hear an all-male choir in a far-off Russian Orthodox Church cathedral humming defiant war tunes to an invisible winter demon enemy from foreign lands.

The last two songs were originally recorded in 1994 and are different in style, sound and production. "Eternal Vastland" ("Wasteland"?) has clear if croaky vocals and the deep military sound of the guitars has not yet developed; in its place we have very raw guitars which make the whole atmosphere of the song very garage punk with whining chainsaw noise in the background. "Raid the Northlord" sounds even more primitive with thin guitars that allow the drums to come to the fore and make the song more hard-hitting than it otherwise would be. Incidentally these two songs also appear on the "Autumn Roar" recording released not so long ago (their track titles may be slightly changed) where they have a cleaner sound on that recording.

"Verdandi" is a real no-frills and lean BM recording and it's perhaps best recommended to those already familiar with the Blazebirth Hall bands and who might be interested in finding out how the bands' style of austere flowing BM minimalism developed in those early days in the mid-1990s. Probably the tracks most likely to appeal are the middle pieces (tracks 3 and 4) and the 1994 recordings which reveal more of Raven Dark's roots and possible influences.