Time Signature Soul nemesis...

Genre: raw black metal

Dirty, filthy, raw black metal from the Land of the Thousand Lakes, Förgjord's "Sielunvihollinen" is a tour de force in chaos and evil. Musically, the album falls under the rubric of raw black metal. Utilizing the power of primitive riffage and tremolo picking, this release should definitely be right up the alley of any fan of the genre. Despite the hateful rawness of this album, there is actually plenty of melody to this album - just check the last couple of passages of 'Musta Lintu' and the bridge of 'Niin Lihassa kuin Veressä' as well as 'Tulilahti 1959'.

The aesthetics of present day black metal, such as tremolo picking, blastbeats and harsh scream-growled vocals, are present on the album, but Förgjord als draw extensively on more old school black metal elements such as an influence from crust punk and primitive thrash metal. Moreover, there are loads of heavy doom-laden passages, such as the extended bridge of 'Ei Kuoleman Arvoinen'. So, despite its black metal single-mindedness, there is actually a sense of variation to this album.

The production is raw and lo-fi with razor sharp guitars, muffled drums and distorted vocals which dominate the mix. The bass is quite audible, actually, which is perhaps unusual for this type of music. This type of production is not really my cup of tea and I find it disturbing, but I can definitely hear that a lot of interesting things are going on in the music, and, of course, lo-fi productions are a feature of the genre of raw black metal, so I am sure that a lot of hardcore fans of the genre will totally enjoy this aspect of the record.

Raw and filthy, yet strangely melodic and heavy, "Sielunvihollinen" is probably not for the casual music listener, but dedicated fans of black metal are bound to love it for its hateful and raw quality.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)