Vehemency Sweden seems to be the womb of generic depressive black metal nowadays, many bands following the footsteps of e.g. Shining and Hypothermia, but every now and then something really promising appears: Svarti Loghin surprised me with their debut album a few years ago, and now we have Sorgeldom and their second album, Inner Receivings.

Sorgeldom is clearly influenced by the depressive black metal movement - in addition to Ved Buens Ende and perhaps shoegaze black metal - but sounds still enough interesting on Inner Receivings. This is mostly thanks to the fantastic guitar work - ingenious and somewhat technical riffs appear in every corner, somewhere between melancholy and twisted aggression, and they only get better after multiple listens. Variation does not only concern the guitars: vocals go from harsh screams to clean and even folkish approach. To make things even more varied, there is a Slowdive cover in the middle of the album.

While diversity is a welcome feature, Inner Receivings has maybe even too many different ideas packed into a long, 60-minute package. Towards the end, the album starts to lose its focus, while the first four songs are of really high quality. I could have respected Inner Receivings more if it excluded something from the end, because now it is a bit too prolonged monster. It is still, though, one of the most interesting records in the field of depressive black metal nowadays, and I’m really waiting for Sorgeldom’s upcoming third attack.