Conor Fynes 'Written In Waters' - Ved Buens Ende (8/10)

Ved Buens Ende is a legendary band in the Norwegian black metal scene. Although not coming too far after the pioneers of the infamous second wave of Norwegian black metal, they had a sound that was vastly different, going down a much more experimental route, while keeping all of the same eerie atmosphere that makes the genre of black metal so appealing to some. Although this band eventually revived in the form of Virus, Ved Buens Ende only ever released this one full length, 'Written In Waters'. Although the career of this band may have been very short, it is massively influential, and seen as the album that largely laid the groundwork for avant-garde black metal. With that information laid down as a precedent, it is understandable that the music here is quite challenging to get into. However, there is method to this madness, and while I found myself having to revisit it many times to really 'get it', 'Written In Waters' is an exceptional piece of Norwegian metal.

Let it be said that Ved Buens Ende were years ahead of their contemporaries. Their sound is somewhat related to the more recent work of Deathspell Omega, and Blut Aus Nord. The point I should bring up is that those two bands made their mark even a decade after 'Written In Waters' was released. In other words, it was a real pioneer, doing things for black metal that were pretty uncomfortable at the time. Most of the vocals here are cleanly sung in a gloomy baritone, with only a few traditional black metal rasps to go around. The guitars are very percussive and dissonant, often alternating between very abrasive black metal riffs and sombre moments of dark psychedelia. There are plenty of echo and reverb effects to go around here, and gives the whole thing a very otherworldly feel.

The songwriting here is made even more challenging by the somewhat muddy production, which obscures parts of the sound to the point where a listener might even hear things that aren't necessarily there. As far as the writing here goes, Ved Buens Ende are masters of making melodies that can be plenty memorable, without necessarily being pretty or beautiful. Although a track like 'Autumn Leaves' gives the listener a respite from the darkness and frantic feel, these human moments are fairly few and far between. The majority of 'Written In Waters' revolves around strange, percussive textures, and a very bleak atmosphere. The vocals here are particularly distinctive, although they will certainly take some getting used to for some listeners. Czral's delivery is not aggressive, but it is unsettling, perhaps somewhat akin to Maniac's vocals on Mayhem's 'A Grand Declaration Of War', except much fuller in their sound.

The real jewel here are the less traditionally 'black metal' elements of this album. The speedy passages are energetic, but admittedly little more than what I would typically expect from a Norwegian black metal band of this era. However, it's Ved Buens Ende's vanguard experimentalism that makes the album so great, and keeps the music engaging despite its somewhat bumpy production.

Conor Fynes 'Those Who Caress The Pale' - Ved Buens Ende (6/10)

Although released officially in 1997, 'Those Who Caress The Pale' is a demo that predates Ved Buens Ende's full-length opus. It does seem somewhat redundant to hear this album after hearing the fulfilled vision of the band on 'Written In Waters', but as it stands, 'Those Who Caress The Pale' is a very good demo that shows plenty of the potential that the band would later go on to realize in greater detail. As anyone who has heard 'Written In Waters' can attest, the band has a very unique sound to them, one that twas years ahead of its time and much different from the typical Norwegian black metal that the band was surrounded with. While 'Written In Waters' makes quite a bit of the material here obsolete, there is thankfully enough stuff not yet heard to make this a worthy listen of its own.

Much of the music here is dominated by abrasive, harsh riffs and the decidedly un-metal crooning of vocalist Czral. Many of the songs here would later be re-recorded for 'Written In Waters', with musicianship and especially the vocal performance being tightened up for it. Here, I get the sense that the band is just as capable as they were on the full-length, but they were less meticulous about it, moreso wanting to get the music out, rather than focusing on the details. This shows, and much of this demo is muddy and obscured by a fairly thin production that some would say was typical of the black metal scene of the time. The standout tracks here are the same ones that managed to find their way onto the full-length, although for a Ved Buens Ende fanatic looking for a few extra minutes of dissonant riffing and maniacal vocals, this recording is far beyond what I would normally expect of a demo.