Warden is a Dark Ambient project also from the Netherlands.
We have already introduced the Dutch duo Baron Yrch Malachi – The Wampyric Specter, collectively known as Blood Tyrant, through a review of their debut album “Aristocracy of Twilight”. It was released in December last year by Iron Bonehead Productions, but Blood Tyrant are not slacking off this year either. In 2017, they are currently focusing on split albums, and we will now introduce the first of them, on which the band participated with their compatriot project Warden. The work was released under the title “Duvonde skerfe” by the small Dutch label The Shadow Kingdom on an audio cassette limited to just 66 copies (the overseas edition was released by Canadian Tour de Garde in an unspecified limitation).
First, let’s look at the Blood Tyrant side. At first listen, of course, we can say that the group presents itself with what it performed a little earlier on “Aristocracy of Twilight”. There are differences here, however. To some extent, Blood Tyrant's contribution on "Duvonde skerfe" is closer to the first demo "Night of Blood Moon". Compared to "Aristocracy of Twilight", the band's sound is even more raw and hideous. The guitars literally cut, the primitive drumming fully corresponds to the genre rules of raw black metal, as well as the vocals are obscured in the fog of deliberately bad sound. Blood Tyrant sound even more barbaric on "Duvonde skerfe" than on their debut, and it must be said that it is a very attractive path for the listener - maybe even a little more than on "Aristocracy of Twilight".
In addition, the material "Duvonde skerfe" brings another change - it seems to me that this time Blood Tyrant are also more aggressive musically and, in a good sense, even more primitive. Of course, this time too there are anthemic passages in a more deliberate tempo, such as in "Lusere af düstre den gjønd" or in the first half of "Anbliik duvonde skerfe", and the Dutch sometimes support their music with ambient keyboards. However, I feel that this time it is a greater evil (that sound certainly plays a role in this impression, no one knows about it), and for example in "Fllittrehördes kamp" Blood Tyrant sets an almost punk tempo. Why not - it works great.
However, my colleagues from Warden did not put me off. The second side "Duvonde skerfe" chooses a completely different approach than what can be heard on Blood Tyrant. There is a single, almost 14-minute track "Ver sei glut det lljusen" offering darkly ambient minimalist surfaces. There are certainly interesting moments here – for example, the passage around the third minute is good and at the end of the song I also feel a decent gradation, but the long passage in the middle of the composition seemed too minimalistic to me and there was almost nothing in it that could interest the listener in any way, and the atmosphere in this passage seemed weaker to me.
On the other hand, it is possible that “Ver sei glut det lljusen” seems a bit weaker also due to the fact that it comes after the elite evil black metal Blood Tyrant. If Warden’s music stood alone, it might be able to leave a deeper impression. If I ever come across another work by the project in the future, I certainly won’t resist trying it out. The song on “Duvonde skerfe” seems “only” decent to me.
So for me, Splitko is primarily about the Blood Tyrant side, who present the deep genre underground in its purest and most disgusting form, primitive black metal brought to raw perfectionism. A treat for all devotees of true darkness.
Sample:
youtube.com/watch?v=owSKK8KVaN8&list=RDowSKK8KVaN8&start_radio=1
