Vanvid

You could be forgiven for thinking that at some point, every person in the whole fucking world has been in a black metal band. And that not only have they been in a black metal band, they've been in a black metal band longer than everyone else (don't even try to figure out how that works, just remember it's all only based on how long you say the band has been around). Unfortunately, with all four billion adults in the world in black metal bands, it gets hard to keep track of them all, even those that have been around for a decade and have released any number of albums (and usually with either no demos, or at least four times as many demos and splits as albums) and that are the founders of, or pioneers of, a particular style; in this case it's Sortsind, who lay claim to helping define modern DSBM (what the fuck does that stand for? I get the D and the BM, but what is the S? Anyone?).

Vanvid is Sortsind's final recording and is a compilation/best of (this would be called a "cash grab" if a major label did it, but since I'm probably one of the few suckers that actually bought this, I don't think that term quite applies here). This contains songs from both full lengths and their debut E.P. As would be expected, they vary wildly in quality, but only sort of corresponding to when they were initially released; unfortunately the variation is from horribly awful to bad to so-so to decent.

The horribly awful tracks comprise about a third of the collection. There are useless guitar/keyboard ambient tracks, like "Blot," "Sar," and "Skumring." These are some of the worst tracks on the entire disc, and one has to wonder why they were even included; they are not frightening, nor scary, nor evil in any way. Instead they sound like what a little kid might compose if he had never had any musical training or musical education, in fact if the kid didn't even know what music was. There are wannabe-buzzing, woefully underproduced Norwegian-style ragers, like "Dromme om Evig Nat," and "Graven Ved Slottet" that could be taken as jokes they're so laughably bad; if there is a real drummer on these tracks, he was learning the kit during these recording sessions. The production doesn't do the nearly-talentless musicians any favors, because the guitars don't buzz in anyway, rather they are much closer to a hum (really close to what a leaf blower sounds like from far away). Most of these are from the E.P. and first album.

The bad tracks make up about another third of the collection. These are mostly Norwegian-style raging black metal, but with much better production than those on the tracks mentioned above. The problem is the guitarist didn't seem interested in writing riffs, choosing instead to just play and hoping the riffs would write themselves, which they didn't. Add to that the same drummer that seems to still be learning all the different pieces of the kit (it's hard to imagine weirder or more misplaced fills). That makes tracks like "Fanget i et sygt sind" a jumbled mess. Also bad is the obligatory Darkthrone-ish blackened punk song "More Days;" this is one of the least convincing songs on the album, and since it's from the debut E.P. one can only assume the band was trying out different black metal styles before choosing which path to take. Surprisingly, these tracks are from all three of Sortsind's releases; that shows either a stunning lack of growth, or a wonderful adherence to "kvlt" dogma (I'm thinking it's a little of both).

The so-so tracks only number about three (maybe four if you've been hit in the head recently and have forgotten the last 15 years of black metal releases). Once again these are mainly in the Norwegian-style, but there are slight variations that make them notable, plus the production is markedly better on these tracks, a fuller guitar sound that really buzzes. "Vandrer Du i Natten Mork" has an interesting section near the end where the bass and bass drum drop out, the guitars slow down and the toms keep knocking away; it makes for an interesting effect when the kick drum and bass comes back in. "Det syge sind" blasts with total abandon and contains some riffs that hew pretty close to death metal at a few points, not too far from early Morbid Angel or Deicide. But even those are completely unoriginal as far as black metal goes; they add nothing to the genre that hasn't been done to death already. These tracks are all from their two full lengths, but that isn't saying much if these are the best tracks from those albums.

The decent tracks, numbering exactly two, are also the most interesting tracks on the album. They are the only two tracks on the entire compilation that might be accused of having personality. Only one is truly notable though, and that's the slow charging "Jeg er Kulden." This song does not seem to have anything in common with the other songs on here: One, it's the only song that isn't nearly continual blasting kick drum; Two, it contains a recognizable riff (even if it is repeated to near boredom); Three, there is a slightly industrial feel to it, mostly from the marching tempo, but also because of the effect used on the vocals (and the strange clean singing/howling at the end). It's a pretty good song, even if it could be an outtake from Burzum's Filosofem sessions. And if these are the best tracks Sortsind ever recorded, wow, just wow, that they managed to release two full length albums.

The problem with everyone being in a black metal band and all of those bands releasing albums at an astonishing rate is that no one seems to worry about quality at all. If Sortsind had played together for a few years, maybe recorded a demo, played together a few more years, chosen a style and stuck to it, they might have released a half-way decent (if wholly unoriginal) black metal album. As it is, save for one or two songs, a compilation like this is necessarily bad, unless you happen to be in the band or a friend of someone in the band (or you're an idiot like me that hears the one good song and assumes that what the entire album sounds like), because it includes so much material that never should have been released in the first place.