Bekëth Nexëhmü "De Svarta Riterna" CD

Descripción Limited to 500 copies.
"This is a demo and not a new album!"
 don't know why "De Svarta Riterna" only merits being an EP and not proper full-length album status since it hits 47 minutes' running time. This Bekëth Nexëhmü guy seems pretty modest about his project if you ask me. Perhaps the fact that the EP was written and recorded in just 4 days explains its status: most albums, commercial ones anyway, can take one, two or three years to see the light of day, and 4 days would be a mere drop in the ocean of time. But as that cliche goes, in the case of "De Svarta Riterna", less is certainly more: this recording features some real mind-expanding sonic experiences for those keen on dark and menacing black metal soundscapes.
The recording actually has the feel of sprawling instrumental ambient BM - yes there are vocals and lyrics but they're all but run over by soaring runaway guitar riffs and melodies and furious percussion. The vocals really sound as if they're coming from the bottom of a vacuum-pressure toilet, the vocalist having been buried in the pipe far past the S-bend - that's the impression of the sound that I have, nothing to do with the quality of the singing. Clean-toned guitar and fuzzier BM tremolo strings alternate where needed and the result is often very uplifting, dramatic or near-hysterical dramatic. There is usually enough repetition of riffs in most tracks to establish them before lift-off time for solo lead guitar. Bekëth Nexëhmü man Swartadauthuz sure knows how to compose and play evocative melodies and riffs as these are very abundant and the listener ends up being carried on a rollercoaster of emotion and mood through shifting ambient soundscapes. The danger possibly is that the EP ends up being something of a travelogue through different exotic landscapes with the listener not having enough time to be fully immersed in each and to digest whatever meaning exists therein.
Although there are four tracks, the EP is best appreciated as if it were one long amorphous work and listeners should be prepared to be fully absorbed by its constantly changing direction and scenery. The recording has an almost orchestral feel even though only guitars, percussion and very minimal use of keyboards, mainly to establish atmosphere, are the only instruments. The sound can be quite sharp and icy and the production includes a fair amount of reverb to give that darkened edge. At times, the recording breaks into short passages of happy, almost psychedelic post-rock optimism, as if we've just taken a short cut through a wormhole from one icy tundra scene to another and we get a glimpse of a parallel universe.
Towards the end, the recording speeds up and becomes hellish and deranged as though getting closer to Ground Zero of Black Metal Chaos. The guitars become more shrill and hysterical and the atmosphere is almost suffocating. The synthesiser seems to get more creepy and alien as well.
Overall this is a thrilling if at times scary ride through an immense universe of dark ambient BM terrain and emotional drama. The EP really deserves to be upgraded to full-fledged album status some time in the future as was done for "De Dunkla Herrarna".
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcyi_xFtgGQ