Heirs of the Northstar

This piece of Finnish black metal seems to be one of the forgotten jewels of the genre. Probably due to the fact that its successors did not sniff the air of comparable heights, "Heirs of the Northstar" lives the life of a hermit. This is a pity, not only because of its tasteful and atmospheric artwork.

Be that as it may, Darkwoods My Betrothed play extremely fast-paced black metal. Apart from its obvious affinity for velocity, their music is characterized by the insane performance of lead singer Pasi. His high-pitched screaming appears as a tremendous tribute to madness. It is definitely not a matter of course to be a fan of his extrovert behaviour, but I like it. As an aside, he knows how to surprise the listener. Irrespective of his mainly preferred approach, he is also able to sing with a completely different voice. I must mention the less rapid "Uller" in this context. He contributes heroic, somehow antique vocals to this piece and lends it an atmosphere of grandeur. But "Uller" has even more to offer. Its cold melody lines and some gloomy keyboard tones at the end create an aura that fits very well with the artwork. (By the way, the keyboards were arranged and performed by a guy called Tuomas Holopainen. Never heard of this dude again. Maybe he has founded a shitty symphonic "metal" band with permanently changing front women who think they stand on an opera stage. Yet this is surely just one of my unrealistic visions.)

Yet first and foremost, the ultra fast pieces shape the character of the album. They do not stand behind the aforementioned mid-paced number in terms of atmosphere, but it goes without saying that they have another effect. Instead of offering a panoramic view over snow-clad landscapes, they feel like an icy storm that blows directly in the face of the listener. A crust of ice distorts his face, inter alia because of the coldness of the guitar sound. It possesses the necessary degree of sharpness and the spirited melodies commute between almost minimalist straightforwardness and rather majestic size. In view of the proven potential of the group, I hate the fact that exactly the opener and the title track are not meticulously worked out. Only their mediocre appearances prevent that "Heirs of the Northstar" joins the exclusive club of flawless classics. But after this more or less acceptable warm-up period, the black cohort delivers only killers. For example, the effervescent riffing of the fourth track, which is flanked by a restless double bass and, of course, the unleashed yelling of Pasi, leaves no room to breathe. More or less the same applies for "In a Silent Night" and "Come Fimbulvetr". Full of energy like a blinding flash of light, they electrify the audience with their craggy arrangements that are based on velocity and relentless dedication while delivering stubborn Finnish art.

But the most outstanding number is placed at the end of the album. Insiders will perhaps say reverently that the 16 minutes piece "Yggdrasil's Children Fall" is Darkwoods My Betrothed's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". Modern maidens would even whisper "Empire of the Clouds". But let us keep our feet on the ground. Dickinson and Harris knew the number of the beast, but I don't think that they are familiar with the number of black metal epics. In other words, Iron Maiden do not have the monopoly on monumental tracks. The Scandinavians have created a fantastic, almost divine being whose lyrics deal with the arcane Northern mythology. This topic matches perfectly with the highly diversified and dramatic configuration of the composition. It shows the mightiness of the band (and the genre as well) in its entire spectrum. Unholy riffs, mid-paced parts, spheric sequences, versatile vocals and explosive eruptions illustrate the twilight of the Gods. The song is divided in six chapters and the last one is called "A New Heaven, a New Earth". But despite this promising perspective, this sonic giant gives no cause for optimism. It is a monument that protrudes from its surroundings, a barren icy desert which is illuminated by the pale light of an autumnal sun. If you have a weakness for primordial yet intelligently designed black metal of the second wave, this desert is worth a journey.

Darkwoods My Betrothed have always been one of the more enigmatic groups of the Scandinavian black metal scene. Appearing not long into the style's rebirth, they existed more or less on their own terms and for their own audience, never really finding their way into even the edge of the spotlight during the Second Wave's rise and eventual decline. And it's not like Finland wasn't a haven for black metal; just ask Impaled Nazarene, Archgoat or Beherit, just to name a few groups who were able to leap into an almost wholly Nordic scene. But to be fair, given DmB's early roots as...ugh...Virgin Cunt, one wouldn't be blamed for not exactly giving these goons the time of day outside of a single listen. Yet they still existed, recorded a couple albums, brought in some help from two Nightwish members, then started an odd period of breaking up and reforming time and again until finally vanishing without so much as a "see ya!" A very rocky and strange history, though it wasn't able to mess with the actual creative output all that much...

As far as "Heirs of the Northstar", their official debut, is concerned, the band was beginning to shed their earlier corpse-painted approach in favor of a more melodic yet still intense wolfcoat barrage of raging tempos and forest-born harmonies. Given how this came out versus their early demo work, I'd consider this a natural evolutionary step, where the adolescent controversy of kicking Christian kids in the head (their words) was replaced with more grown-up matters of one's inherent beliefs and views replaced by a tongue so foreign as to be considered outright WRONG and lamenting such losses. Satan was replaced with the grand gods of Valhalla and legit anti-Christian anger and the music changed along with it, yet it wasn't so sudden as to bring about a bout of culture shock. The group was still black metal at its absolute core, shown by way of everything ranging from the guitar tone to the drumming to the general riffwork, but things end up being thrown for a loop when you think you've got the sound pegged down (case in point: two incendiary and brutal tracks opening the album before the slower and more soothing "Uller" comes down from the snowy hillside to ease you back in). Darkwoods... go about their wares with plenty of gusto as though they have something to prove which, during this period in their existence, they clearly did have to prove their worth, and for all their pathos and stylistic understanding it unfortunately comes off as an album that could only serve to compliment your already-burgeoning black metal album collection versus being something to burn a church in its name. As inauspicious as it sounds, that's just the vibe I got from it; it's well written and strongly performed, but there are better bands and albums of this type out there (we know who and what they are...).

As a whole the band tears through the tracks with a somewhat controlled sense of chaos; most of the time they're on point, but every once in a while a flub or missed timing will come to pass, sometimes in such a way as to wonder if this wasn't recorded in as little time as possible with no real time spent on post-production. On the front end side of things, vocalist Pasi, aka Emperor Nattaset (later on), aka Julma (even further on) has a tone of voice one wouldn't expect; rather than traditional black metal screeches and rasping he shoots for a mournful wailing that in its own right is unique but, the more you hear it, the more annoying it gets; in small doses, and with the right musical context, it's pretty eerie and haunting, but other times (like, say, more often than not) he sounds less like a wraith and more like an emotionally-charge Bobby Hill having a fit. Other times, especially during the slower and more majestic tracks, he goes for a "drunken Viking" singing that would fit well if he could just stay in tune and didn't fly all over the place with it, making it just sound silly. If I may play devil's avocado, here; he would have definitely had more of an impact, and wouldn't be nearly as irritating, if he had the multi-thronged vocal attack as he did on "Autumn Roars Thunder". Food for thought, if nothing else. And the synth work of Mr. Tuomas Holopainen (who finds his first real musical contribution here) is quite lush and atmospheric, making up the majority of the melodic aura floating about the riffs and blistering drums, yet they are surprisingly low-key given what we know the guy was/is capable of (maybe it was part of being in the group? I can't say how much input he had outside of composing one piece of music for them...).

All in all Darkwoods' debut album is a good slab of black/Viking metal nastiness that has vigor to spare, but that's really all it's got. It doesn't rewrite the book on the genre, nor does it provide or even require your attention so fervently as to drop everything and give it a spin. But still, satisfactory is easily better than awful.

Hailing from Kitee in eastern Finland, a town that is also called the ‘moonshine-capital’, Darkwoods my betrothed released their debut ‘Heirs of the Northstar’ in 1995, a year that saw a flood of Black Metal releases after the 2nd Black Metal wave took off for real. Since this fine album was released by south korean label Hammerheart Productions (not Hammerheart Records from the Netherlands) and was but sparsely distributed in Europe, it passed somewhat unnoticed among the mass of other Black Metal Albums, and this is a pity, because it is certainly better than a large majority of them. Not that ‘Heirs of the Northstar’ was a classic: it is too unoriginal for that, even considering that it was recorded in 1994; and it lacks the dense atmosphere that classic Black Metal Albums do create. But for the most part, ‘Heirs of the Northstar’ offers standard Black Metal, and I mean this in a positive sense. I mean it in the sense that it offers a certain standard that should be expected from a Black Metal Album (but which is seldom reached these days…): good (or should I rather say evil?) riffs, icy guitar-sound, throaty screams, a balanced mix between fast and mid-tempo parts and between monotony and variation, solid musicianship (especially the bass-player is skilled, and very audible), and a sound that leaves room for every instrument without being sterile. Keyboards are used sparsely, never dominating the sound, but only supporting the other instruments in selected parts, just like they should.

Two tracks stand out: ‘Uller’ moves away from typical Black Metal and in the direction of mid-tempo Viking Metal, strongly influenced by ‘Hammerheart’-era Bathory. While the music itself is quite epic, it is marred by the clean singing, which can best be described as sounding ‘drunk’. I am almost certain that Pasi had had his share (and more) of Pontikka (home-made vodka) when he recorded these vocals. They just sound terribly off-key, like a drunkard stumbling home at night after a village-fair; and while they sound pathetic, I have to say that they also sound funny after you got used to them (and even more so after having enjoyed some home-burnt yourself). Nevertheless, a Black Metal Album, and that’s what ‘Heirs of the Northstar’ is after all, is not supposed to be funny, and such a poor vocal performance costs points. Fortunately, it is limited to this and parts of the last track. Now here is a rule that would considerably have improved the music of many Viking and Black Metal bands: “Never include clean vocals in your sound if you can’t do them properly, or find someone who is able to do them!”

The last track then, ‘Yggdrasil’s children fall’, is the highlight on this album. Divided into 6 different parts, based on a concept about norse mythology, notably the death of Baldur and Ragnarok, and lasting an ambitious 16 minutes, it features both epic mid-tempo Viking Metal and fast, aggressive Black Metal in the vein of the previous tracks, some acoustic guitar and calm passages based on keyboards, all woven together in a natural way. The vocals on this track range from vocal-chord shredding screeches to simple narrating (with an odd finnish accent) and (unfortunately) some more drunk ‘singing’.

An interesting fact is that Tuomas Holopainen from Nightwish actually performed the keyboards on this album, and even composed the last part of ‘Yggdrasil’s children fall’. If you had told me upon first listening to this album back in 1995 that one of the musicians would later become a famous rock star, I would not have believed it for a single second. Anyways, his contribution on this album is most probably by far the best thing he has achieved in his whole musical career, hehe...