ARVET — Ihmiskärsimys (review)

ARVET — Ihmiskärsimys album cover EP · 2008 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Vehemency
I don’t know what it is with recent Finnish black metal, but there seems to be a wave of occult Satanic bands that are musically closer to depressive black metal than other religious black metal bands such as Deathspell Omega. Arvet is one of these bands, dwelling in the idea of suffering as a significant part of reaching Gnosis. Is this then a cheap mixture of the two trends - suicidal and religious black metal - or what?

Be it a mixture or not, Arvet doesn’t sound cheap. Ihmiskärsimys includes three relatively slow tracks in low fidelity production that sounds more like a rehearsal recording. The music itself is, as expected, sorrowful and desolate. All the guitar melodies almost cry, if you can say so. This is particularly seen on the last track that sounds like a final exertion after all the exhaustion caused by the previous slower tracks ”Mustan Valon Kantaja” and ”Käärmeen Sana Kuolemissani”. The music is not professionally played but the fairly sloppy playing only fits to the atmosphere of powerlessness.

The lyrics are very symbolic and poetic, and it’s a shame that foreign listeners will miss them. Although, I can’t much decipher the lyrics from Noxifer’s style of frail shrieks, but luckily the lyrics are provided in the booklet. Mortification is presented as a noble idea so from this point of view Arvet is very far from the usual suicidal black metal ideology. The booklet also includes an additional poem, or should it be called some sort of a proclamation, which gives a general idea of the whole theme.

I can not find much fault with Ihmiskärsimys. Overall it’s a very enjoyable EP of authentic and emotional black metal art. It is nothing new but it satisfies my needs for this kind of music perfectly. Somehow I’m still afraid to give a higher score, maybe because I believe that Arvet will top this release later, possibly with a full-length album. We’ll see.
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