Ravendusk in My Heart

Anders Nyström is known to most as the brilliant guitarist and composer of Katatonia's melodic doom, or perhaps for his work with all-stars Bloodbath; but for a period, he was also the enigmatic Blakkheim of Diabolical Masquerade, his solo vehicle. And quite the vehicle, for it rode through four albums of quality that are much beloved across the underground. Ravendusk in My Heart is the first of these, a collaboration with Dan Swanö and a great window into the gothic and symphonic black metal of the mid 90s.

The theme of the album is the central character Blackheim's voyage into many black metal/gothic 'tropes', and the song titles reflect this. We have "Blackheim's Quest to Bring Back the Stolen Autumn", "Blackheim's Forest Kept the Season Forever", "The Sphere in Blackheim's Shrine", and who could forget "Blackheim's Hunt for Nocturnal Grace". The thing is, I'm not sure just how tongue in cheek this was meant to be. It's funny, but at the same time it's actually quite graceful, you can really close your eyes and venture forth the imagery of this titular character, some vampiric black metal baron living in these lonely gothic landscapes as he tries to divine meaning from the natural world around him. It ends up quite an endearing album, with some good tunes to boot, and absurd Swenglish lyrics like:

'In dewy fields of an autumnal yet springful age
A forest was seen yet impossible to gaze through
Within only a few trees all sound devoured
Even the open skies outside would lose its light
Once the darkness could escape it´s soulflight
Winter crawled away from earth to keep the forest one seasoned'

The best songs are the more epic pieces like opener "The Castle of Blackheim" or the sweeping "The Darkblue Seajourneys of the Sentinel", but the album stops to have fun on the shorter "Under the Banner of the Sentinel" with its cheesy King Diamond-like shrill vocal work and raging heavy metal themes. The instrumental "Beyond the Spiritual Moon" is a lovely little interlude, as is the closing and haunting title track with its pumping bass line beneath synthesized ambience and the gothic spoken word of Blackheim. The Dan Swanö production was fantastic for its time (like so many of his efforts) and still sounds good today, though it's been remastered as well.

This is the type of album which I initially had a mixed reaction too but has never quite left me during all these years. In fact my appreciation has only grown. It does have a little of that quirkiness to it (most Diabolical Masquerade albums do), but not to the level of a Gloomy Grim or Rakün. I once had a preference for The Phantom Lodge and Nightwork over this album, but I've gone a fraction dry on those, so this still provides his best, eerie trip down memory lane.

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This debut album was the start of a long and successful career for Blackheim with Diabolical Masquerade. It certainly stirred great excitement within me for what was to come on subsequent albums. I’ve always enjoyed one-man projects greatly, as it’s always interesting to see the uniform influence of one person with singular ideas for each instrument. There is never conflict of composition, and often the musical result is organic and tight. Blackheim is no different, showing immense talent on “Ravendusk…” and proving his worth as a black metal composer, with some help from Dan Swano.

This album looks great on paper, being a debut from a one-man side project of Katatonia. I harbored great expectations for Diabolical Masquerade, and for “Ravendusk in my Heart” in particular, I was sure Blackheim would show his steel by writing some good music. He did not disappoint. This is an ice-cold chunk of black metal, showcasing much versatility in songwriting. Although it is a blueprint for all we know black metal to be, this album is very unique, and distinctive in its own style. Nothing else sounds like Diabolical Masquerade, which is quite an achievement considering the vast amount of BM artists out there.

“Ravendusk in my Heart” shows much experimentation. Clearly Blackheim was still crafting the sound of Diabolical Masquerade, still building on what would become DM as we know it today. That makes for a very curious listening experience here. All the songs are different, both in structure and in general feel. There is even a short instrumental interlude with melodic clean guitarwork. The songs never feel formulaic, each one is an idea all on its own, not merely a continuation or a filler.

The standout component of the excellent songwriting is the guitars, coldly channeling black metal elements from the immortal tremolo riff to clean, atmospheric interludes. At times, the guitar work is fast and aggressive, but mostly it leans in favor of atmospheric BM. The slower riffs are the memorable ones here, with decent melodies dark enough to feel at home with the cold production. The distortion is thin, and the cleans are rich and warm, distinctly black metal. However, Blackheim incorporated death, thrash and even doom metal elements when writing the guitars on “Ravendusk…”. The drums sound very thin and cold, somewhat distant from the other instruments. The drums weren’t written to stand out here, typical blastbeats and double-times drive most of the album.

The only instrument that really stands out is the guitaring, but this isn’t an album made to impress with musical prowess. All the instruments blend together instead of standing out, this album is all about atmosphere. It is very dark, and yet paradoxically melodic at times, rising and falling incessantly. The album never drags or becomes monotonous, the constant change of the innovative composition keeps you listening compulsively. This is, however, a very unique atmospheric album in terms of mood. The album as a whole feels very desolate, very solitary. I find myself enjoying “Ravendusk…” most when listening alone. The atmosphere is somewhat depressing at times, and without attentive listening, much of the depth is lost. The experience is different in solitude, for you are most receptive when you are alone, picking up all the nuances adding to the personal feel of the album, as Blackheim intended.

This is an album meant to be a private experience, just as creating it was for Blackheim. This is possibly Diabolical Masquerade’s best album, with diversity in all songs and incredible mood. A definite black metal classic that’s sure to rack up a formidable play count in your collection. “Ravendusk in my Heart” is fantastic.

Bands like Diabolical Masquerade rightly have cult status within the black metal society for their truly diverse approach to the often formulated style that most bands apply to their music. ‘Ravendusk In My Heart’ began what was a well established career for this Swedish brand of avant-gardé black metal with two of the most recognisable names in the metal industry, let alone within the black metal scene; Anders Nyström, or Blakkheim as his alias was during the time of Diabolical Masquerade and Dan Swanö, both of whom have played major parts in establishing the glorious and global reputation of bands like Bloodbath and Katatonia, which Nyström founded alongside the talented Jonas Renkse. ‘Ravendusk In My Heart’ seems to be one of the earliest, and yet strongest, tales of avant-gardé black metal the genre has seen. There have been rumours are a revival, but there has been no confirmation on that as of yet. It would be interesting to see how Diabolical Masquerade cope with the modern day era since it’s become a lot more adventurous.

There’s a distinctive vibe throughout the music which indicates that some influence has been taken from bands that these two musicians have been apart of, for example, Katatonia. Early Katatonia mind you. It is likely that something like this would happen and it isn’t a negative in the slightest. Although there are bound to be some comparisons, Diabolical Masquerade create a largely unfamiliar sound, at least at the time of it’s creation. There are some typical moments throughout Diabolical Masquerade’s career, like the use of rasping vocals, but there is enough experimentation to keep the listener forever on their toes. Take songs like ‘Under The Banner Of The Sentinel’ for example. The vocals switch to a style which seems to be of a traditional heavy metal variation in the form of high pitched screams which contains a double dosage of melody. There is no doubting that either side of the musical interpretation is delivered well and with a certain power, but there are times when the adventure can become too overbearing and too tiring as it switches from the epitome of black metal, with double bass blast beats and tremolo riffs, to varied vocals and the introduction of a piano! The complexities in mood shifts are odd too. The depictions range from medieval battles to modern day masochism as Diabolical Masquerade switch from dual vocals performances (both clean and distorted) and from marvellous solos to simple tremolo thrashings. The lyrics seem to highlight the complexities in the song writing and support a lot of the imagery that is conjured up.

“Once upon a Time in a Medieval Legendary World
In late December Cold of the Thousand Winter Season
Blackheim took Farewell of his Crypts in the Forestrealms
and Rode into the Horizonland Unreachable for Mortals”

There is something so typical about the lyrics, however complex they can be to decipher in relation to the instrumental interpretation and/or the true meaning behind the music. One cannot argue that the musicianship and song writing isn’t sublime because these two musicians can switch between influences and produce their own special sound in seconds, displaying both spectrums of their music with a certain coolness and ease. There is no dispute whenever the Swedes decide to stick to as simplified version of black metal bliss as possible, with songs like ‘Blackheim's Quest To Bring Back The Stolen Autumn‘ and ‘Blackheim's Forest Kept The Season Forever’ delighting with traditional elements. The production of this record is perfect. It has a slight tendency to slip back into the old ways of black metal bands by delighting the senses with a dark portrayal of the themes, which apparently consists of death, horror and witchcraft. The instrumentation utilizes the dark splendor of the soundscapes, which are laid down by the production, providing the listener with a truly awesome guitar performance and a lesser bass performance, which is still good enough to warrant a mention as it lays the foundations of the music. I would have liked to have seen more influence from the keyboards too, which are often overshadowed by the guitar performance. To me, there are two bands in this era that dominate the scene. One being Diabolical Masquerade and the other being Arcturus. Unfortunately for this Swedish act, I think Arcturus are more talented and better at painting a picture of what avant-gardé black metal should sound like. Although ’Ravendusk In My Heart’ doesn’t compare to the works of bands like Arcturus, or even some of their own works that came after this, it’s still good.

To begin with, I think that Blackheim's Diabolical Masquerade has become one of the most vital and unique voices in the metal underground, transcending genres to truly bring something of dark art to the world, and have done so with a complete lack of compromise. This is the first release of his, and as such it is the most closely confined album to the idioms of ‘black metal.’ Far from drawing many stylistic influences from his other band, Katatonia, this is flowing black metal similar to early Mork Gryning, Stormblast-era Dimmu Borgir, and of course Darkthrone and Emperor. However, already the kaleidoscopic nature of Blackheim’s tastes and influences from metal shine through this largely opaque sea of black metal, hinting at traditional heavy metal breakdowns, more alien (not aliens from space, but alien as in totally foreign) than evil tonalities, and a uniquely chaotic and organic approach to structure and organization of musical ideas.

Guitar work is the definite star of this album’s execution, as ebbing and flowing traditional cadences of blocks and chords of black metal wash up on shores of older heavy metal power-chord romps, at times obviously tongue-in-cheek in their delivery. Other lead guitar phrasings here are subdued in simple yet creative breaks from the norm of minor chord arpeggios and leads, approaching lead melody and subharmonics with a distant and buzzing sensibility in some riffs that call to mind those ideas that make Darkthrone and bands like Taake outstanding in their ability to be creative in such a restrictive category of dark music. Complex chords hail more from abused and mutated folk chords than classical minor or modal ideas, and this strangeness is a definite appeal. These unique snippets of music are present in each song, but are restrained, as if Blackhiem knew he would have to attract listeners with more traditional riffs, show them the bizarre dark power of his original ideas, and lure them to get his later vastly more unique releases. Some of the better moments of this album remind me of early Abigor in the way the phrasings of strange folk chord voicing present themselves in buzzing shifting curtains of noise. Clean guitar sounds in short snippets pepper the album nicely as well.

Keyboards are also present on this release; keeping mostly underneath the melody of the guitars or alongside them, mostly choir sounds with some synth folk instruments such as flutes. At this point in the career of the band, the ability presented on the keyboards is restrained at best, and there is a distinct lack of the mastery of the instrument Blackheim would later display on more mature releases. Blackheim’s vocals are sometimes emotional and at other times distant and almost academic, which serve as yet another tool of this album’s eerie ability to drive the listener to alienation from this release. Mostly rasping screams typical to any underground black metal release, there are also some ‘spooky’ spoken word portions and sung vocals in small amounts on this album, each delivered with a suitably intelligent tongue-in-cheek quality.

The combination of traditional black metal instrumentation and ideas mixed with new and alien approaches to songwriting and aesthetic make this album stand out immediately from those that it sounds similar to. Certainly Diabolical Masquerade’s other releases are more experimental and masterful in their execution of interesting music, but this release stands alone as a work of considerable depth and power for a first release. Many collectors will have this simply to have all of Blackheim’s work; but it is an interesting piece of metal on it’s own, regardless of what it led to. Very enjoyable.