Kev Rowland Here we have the follow-up to 2013’s, ‘Black Testament’, and is again basically a solo album with Hellhammer providing drums, and Ornias everything else. Ornias has of course been there since the very beginning back in 1991 when the band was known as Chalice, and he has been through a few different line-ups since then. Here we have black metal in its truest sense – no hammer house of horror keyboards or ambient rubbish to be found, what we have are a wall of riffing guitars, bass right behind it, drums punishing them all, and a singer trapped in a dungeon of pain.

Musically this moves from mid-paced to fast and sinister tempos, featuring a dynamic melodic range injected into an overall feeling of obscurity and brutality. What makes this album work so well is the variety between the songs, as well as within them as well. Hellhammer knows when to keep it brutal and also when to turn it up a notch or ten and blast the double bass drums as if he is in a grindcore outfit instead of black metal. Ornias hearkens back to the classic times of Mayhem, Darkthrone and Emperor, blasting it out as if the last twenty years never happened. If you want to listen to black metalthat is rightly reclaiming its place at the feast, and is relevant, dramatic and crunchingly powerful then look no further.

Kev Rowland For those who haven’t come across Svartsyn before it may come as a surprise to discover that they were formed as long ago as 1991 by Ornias who provides everything except drums. Originally called Chalice, the name was changed to Svartsyn in 1994 and although he has been through a few drummers since then Ornias has stayed active, and this is the third album in as many years. But, the work rate hasn’t diminished the sound and yet again he has produced a black metal album that contains enough chills and emotion to satisfy any metalhead. It is bleak, it is cold, and there are enough shifts in pace and tone to keep the interest levels high. His vocals are spot on for the style, with a rasping harshness that adds an additional element of threat.

The guitarwork is particularly tight, and although there are times when it becomes a wall of sound the note density never diminishes. There is more than a nod to Immortal on this album and if you enjoy your metal as black as Hades then this is for you. www.agoniarecords.com

Time Signature Tearing your soul...

Genre: black metal

While Svartsyn's previous releases were said to be ambient at times and progressive and complex at times, "The True Legend" is a pretty straighforward affair.

There are some not-so-straightforward time signatures every now and then, and Svartsyn also offer some spacey synths in some tracks, but on the whole, we are dealing with quite digestible and expressive black metal, offering typical genre features such as blastbeating and tremolo picking along with harsh vocals. At times, the harmonies are quite tense, but most of the time there is a strangely melodic feel to the guitars. One thing that is almost refreshing is the punky and simple nature of some of the riffage, which helps make this release one this is capable of reaching beyond the horde of black metal fans and serve as a portal into the dark universe of this genre to the uninitiated.

The production is no polished, but not raw either - so, while we the performance on the album seems rather organic and probably has not been processed, Svartsyn's "The True Legend" is definitely not as nasty or filthy as raw black metal. The mix, however, is unbalanced - and the guitars are too weak in the mix for my taste, with the vocals and drums being very dominant. While this does not sit well with me, I think that the reverb-rich vocals will probably appeal a lot to seasoned fans of the genre.

Dark, expressive, tense, but yet strangely melodic, Svartsyn's latest effort is an interesting and relatively easily digestible slab of black metal that will definitely appeal broadly within the armies of black metal fans and perhaps even beyond them.

Vehemency While Svartsyn’s 2007 effort revolved around atmospheric passages where relatively odd time signatures (for black metal) were repetitive and hence easier to digest, the band’s sixth full-length Wrath Upon the Earth has little twists and turns in every corner. This, plus the generally faster tempo, makes Wrath Upon the Earth a more challenging record, but in its technicality also a little less interesting effort: the album is pretty much a blast fest throughout - in the vein of 1349 - with minimum dynamic range, other than the little technical tricks.

That is not to say that the album is bad at all: Wrath Upon the Earth is a mammoth, both compositionally and sound-wise. The bursts of speed are powerful in the massive production, a production that also has its glitches, though: the mixing of drums could do better because the individual drums, such as toms, sound really apart from each other. When toms and certain symbals are hit, they sound like they are coming from somewhere else, making it all sound a bit messy. (This is just a little detail that a drummer, yours truly, found a little harassing in the production, and I can assure you that it’s nothing too severe.)

Due to the static nature of the compositions, it’s hard to pick up standout moments from the 36-minute whole. This is one of the album’s problems, even if the album is worth hearing for the devilish, monstrous atmosphere alone. At times, the seemingly constant blast beat is trance-inducing and there are moments of slightly slower tempo, too (”Dawn of Triumph, ”Blood Temple”), to not dull the listener. The music retains the strictly evil morbidity from the beginning to the end, and I find myself exhausted after the album, which is a good sign.

For fans of Svartsyn’s back catalogue, Wrath Upon the Earth might be a disappointment due to its compressed sound and ultimate speed. Nonetheless, the album is rather well done and deserves a positive rating - the impressive cover art even more points. I could see myself giving this album spins every now and then in the future, most certainly.