Naturgewalten

The whole pagan black metal thing isn't something I've ever been really able to get behind with the notable exception of Hellveto or weirder artists like Phorcys. I'm not talking about straight folk/black mixtures; I mean that precise combination of modern black metal with Dimmu Borgir and viking tendencies which seems to be for so many the bridge between accessible and mainstream varieties of metal and 'real' black metal. This is a gross overgeneralization, obviously, but the nature of the music- poppy but with a variety of airbrushed abrasiveness so neatly applied- tends to bring that sort of thing to mind.

That being said, the bands on this split, Mind Propaganda and Ismark, seem to be more legitimate than the majority of the bands in this style, but at the same time play around in such musically safe territory that they manage to irritate me nonetheless. 'Naturgewalten' isn't a bad split by any means, but it's incredibly restrained; the music is so inoffensive that it actually offends me in places, leaving me wondering who the hell took all the daring and interesting stuff from the music and replaced it with outtakes from Dimmu Borgir and Nokturnal Mortum? I do enjoy this in pieces from time to time, but I think it's the sort of thing that could have been made much better by people more willing to musically extend themselves into unsure territory.

Mind Propaganda opens the split with four tracks of primarily midpaced pagan metal in a very conventional style. The tempo is pretty plodding and with a big emphasis on rolling viking-style triplets with strummed chords or swaying tremolo lines alongside fairly conventional black metal vocals interspersed with occasional cleans. The production is crisp and somewhat overly digital, particularly in the guitar tone, but doesn't leave any of the instruments out in the old and is overall representative enough to carry the music. In places this reminds me of a less epic, more black metal Iuvenes, with the typical notes of older Dimmu Borgir and Nokturnal Mortum, of course.

This music moves slooowly, and each of the songs seems painfully drawn out simply due to the unfriendly tempo and style chosen. Even at its fastest moments this is rather far from exciting, which isn't necessarily an insult as it's not the attempt of this music to be as such. It does conjure a lot of the requisite images of sweeping vistas populated by suspiciously pale and blue-eyed peoples, hitting a lot of pseudo-Burzum notes in its demi-ambient structuring laced with repetition and somewhat droning synth work. Occasionally the project attempts to break out with a riff in a more rocking vein, which seems pretty inappropriate when juxtaposed with the more 'dignified' music around it, but I'll give them props for trying.

What irritates me about Mind Propaganda is how achingly safe the music is, with even the production seemingly toned down as to avoid offending anyone. Maybe I've been submerged in slam death and noise black for too long at this point, but I can't help but want to hear what this music sounds like with a little more unrestrained fire behind it. The mechanical style of playing and production to me seems a little antithetical to the whole idea of being 'pagan'; shouldn't it be a little more raw and untamed? Despite this, I can't really fault the songwriting; it's occasionally catchy and always listenable even though it tends to drag on at times. I just think it could have been more.

Ismark concludes with another four tracks, and sounds a great deal like Mind Propaganda but with a higher overall tempo and a greater influence from straightforward black metal instead of pagan's usual array of suspects. This music could really just be Mind Propaganda demos, before that band lost all of its extreme influences, and the slightly degraded and thin production helps that idea along. Ismark's music is more willing to blast and let itself go with some relatively intense moments to be found, with more tremolo riffs and screeching vocals than would be found on the first half of this split and some passages that certainly call from the Emperor school of melodic black metal.

I tend to enjoy Ismark's side of this split more for possessing some of the qualities that Mind Propaganda so sorely lacks: namely, passion and intensity not excessively tempered by professional fancies. Ismark's side of this split is actually pretty good at crafting a triumphant and pagan atmosphere, aided greatly by its forays into more conventional Norwegian-inspired black metal. The riffs, while still not quite memorable, are solid and manage to propel the music along, though like the previous side, Ismark still has issues with keeping the songs interesting through their entire lengths, occasionally falling intro traps of cyclic riffing and overly repeated themes. Repetition is a part of being epic, not the whole thing.

Despite my positive comments, the things that make Ismark better than Mind Propaganda are mostly a matter of degree: it's more intense but still not particularly abrasive, more interesting but still drags from time to time, and more cleverly written but not especially so. Ismark's music does tend to be boring (for want of a better word) after it's gone on too long in track length simply because there's not enough interesting stuff going on within the actual instrumental performances to keep you focused nor are the song structures exceptional enough to carry you on their own. Much like the first side, Ismark's music isn't bad, but I could see it being a lot better with more time.

I do recommend this material to fans of pagan-style black metal; these bands are archetypal and definitive of the particular subgenre and aren't hampered by awful production or playing like so many other groups in the same scene. It's certainly not the best material I've heard in this vein, but it's inoffensive and listenable, though maybe those two things are actually its downfall to some degree. This isn't a particularly necessary release, but it's nice enough for what it is; I just wish it was more, you know, interesting.