The original CD release of the album. Comes in a standard jewel case.
I first became aware of Stridsmenn a long time ago. In fact, at one stage, I was going to add them to the Archives myself, but the self-titled debut full-length had not yet been released to the public via Northern Silence Productions, a very trustworthy label by all accounts. This band is a known as a union between two other projects formed by the sole creator of this band, Arnjeir. Those two bands were named Austkrigar and Borgaholt. As far as I’m aware, Arnjeir would only release his material to a close circle of friends, but these soon become accessible via various underground labels who haven’t yet hit the big-time. I haven’t actually heard either of those two bands, but I imagine they’re along the same lines as this act, one which takes a huge amount of influence from the second wave. This self-titled release isn’t entirely formed on traditional elements though, as the opening two songs highlight well. I won’t count ‘Nattestid’ in this because it’s a short instrumental track with no real bearing upon the albums progression, or evolution.
The first full song, entitled ‘Saar’, mixes clean vocals in with expected elements such as a highly distorted atmosphere and an edgy lo-fi feel to the atmospherics. The clean vocals are worked well into the album, though they don’t feature at all prominently throughout the course of the albums thirty-eight minute duration. I was somewhat disappointed about this fact because it would have given the release an added sense of integrity and dynamism aside from the use of heaps of distortion. The clean vocals add a refreshing side to this tale which feels somewhat dated at times and has a very traditional Norwegian feel to it. I understand that Arnjeir used two different session musicians on this album, one providing the occasional piano touches and the other vocals, though I assume this means backing vocals in the form of the cleanly sung one’s featured on songs like ‘Saar’. The piano features along the lines of something Arcturus might produce, though the performance of the pianist is muted by the relentless distortion. ‘Den Sorte Sti’, unlike ‘Saar’, doesn’t take too long to introduce the refreshing touches and feels more worthwhile for doing so earlier.
Again, this brings into question Arnjeir’s preference of clean vocals on this track. They don’t feature prominently on either the song, or the album, though they do enhance the song from a mediocre slab of traditional based black metal, to something a bit more exciting than the standards we came to expect from the second wave of Scandinavia. These clean, eerie vocals don’t even appear until over half-way through the song. However, alongside the haunting, folksy acoustics that Arnjeir implements into the, they add a depth to the sound that perhaps wasn’t present before in the minimalistic approach of regulated black metal elements such as distortion, repetitious riffing and heavy percussion. The song does eventually transform back into its original shape, but these brief periods of experimentation make this album worth listening to. The riffing tends to be fairly monotonous and the bass isn’t used in an extraordinary fashion. It tends to mirror the guitars and is generally always audible despite the heavy use of distortion. The bass tends to be a little more imaginative on songs like ‘Den Sorte Sti’ without ever really setting the world on fire with its individualism.
It doesn’t like to stray too far from the flock and is a sheep whilst the guitars remain the shepherd, leading it whenever it may go. The bass is reminiscent of a lot of mainland European bands. It’s very low and cautious within the soundscapes. The song writing doesn’t intend on being adventurous as Arnjeir seems to have limited ability, though he does do well whenever he invites the acoustics, or sparsely occurring piano passages into the fray. These elements supply the album with a more epic feel, though they’re too infrequent to offer any real enhancement to the album. Songs like ‘Boldvatn’ showcase that, if the acoustics had played a greater role, then this folk-tinged album would have had a greater and wider appeal than just being another dedication to days long since gone by. Although I really do consider this just another attempted revival of the old days, it shows enough character to be able to be deemed a success despite being too influenced by a less vocal force in black metal today. Perhaps with a bigger role for the cleaner chants, the piano and the acoustics, Stridsmenn could become a far greater band than they currently are.
Sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFI7OB7Pr8Y&list=PLGJxv6bAUez8qf7j3CPk4mGGur6iOSmKt&index=2
