Never before released demo from 1994. Comes in a 4 panel Digipak.
A certain tendency in the development of the musical theme can be discernible on this short release, so it pays to go through song after song. Well then, the first and second songs were created using the same template, they even begin the same way: a minimalistic drum machine and fuzzed bass perform a simple motive. And although the rhythm and melody of this motive are built, as I think, according to the laws of punk, – even more so, there is a reminiscence of "Sweet Dreams" by synth-popish Eurythmics (1983) in the first chord of "Hilset den hellige jord", and I'm sure that if I knew punk music well, I would find an analogue for the first chord of the second song, it is a reminiscence of something too, – so despite all this, I don't hear any merriment or slovenliness or something else that can be associated with punk. Nidhogg music is really evil and hateful. It is evil in itself, and in addition the malicious vocals exasperate this anger.
Whether in the first song, or in the second one, as the track progresses, the drum machine and bass are periodically joined by the aggressive guitar, for which a lot of reverb was used – the result turns out to be a typical early black metal. And there is a modest "decoration" at the end of each track: "Hilset den hellige jord" is crowned with a very typical "black metal-ish" guitar fingerpicking, while "Banemann" ends with a minimalistic guitar improvisation, so to speak.
In comparison with these songs, the third "Blot" even has a complicated chord progression – I repeat: in comparison with the first two songs. Every once in a while, some kind of, hmm... under- or proto-Darkthrone is heard here. In one word, black metal is step by step recovering territory from punk, but so far, it has not been able to capture all the territory. In its turn the fourth song "I hvergjelme" presents already one hundred percent black metal, in terms of riffs. Almost. Yes, to be honest, almost. With a certain stretch, we can say that this song sounds in the vein of the "Wrath of the Tyrant" demo (1992), and in some ways it is even more "black metal-ish". Emperor's music is, of course, more technically complex, but remember how does "Lord of the Storms" begin at this demo – it's almost one and the same punk. Taking into consideration that Ildjarn and Samoth were involved in the recording of "Nidhogg", maybe this comparison is not a comparison at all.
"Nidhogg" is a never before released demo, recorded back in 1994. Judging by the albums released nowadays, there is a great fashion to mix punk and black metal now. I don't mean at all to say that "things used to be much better" (I hate this "slogan"), but something tells me that current fashion would hardly welcome the minimalism that we hear on this release. Despite the fact that there is no denying the musicality of this work, some semblance of a guitar solo is heard only in the first and fourth songs, and it is better not to talk about the structure of the compositions. For the matter of that, Nidhogg does not "combine" punk with black metal, he uses the laws of punk to create black metal, that's the inequality.
Well, although the word "punk" sounded very often in this short text, "Nidhogg" is a very atmospheric and dark work. It's black metal. The soullessness and coldness of the stones that are captured on the cover, accompany you throughout the whole release, you can almost feel them. The stones sing their cold song, Nidhogg hears it and translates it into our human language. That is my understanding of this work.
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=1pt1fKZaFTM&list=RD1pt1fKZaFTM&start_radio=1
