Recorded in Pinhead Studio, Norway, August 2001. Primitive and anti-christian music based on cavemen that once lived on the mountains and fjords of Norway. Objects like animal skulls, bones, and blocks of wood are combined with the regular Black / Viking / Pagan metal instruments used to capture a hideously ugly sound. Includes members of Necrophagia, Gorelord, Wurdulak, and Ave Sathanas.
These guys play very raw old-school Black Metal in the typical norwegian style. The album provides a good mixture of blasted and mid-paced parts, furthermore the songs are not too long mainly so it doesn't get boring. Riffing is very much inspired by Darkthrone, just like the simple and pounding drumming.
The production is of course not the best which does not disturb me usually. In this case I think the drums are a bit too loud in the mix, they take away the sawing of the guitars. The bass is completely inaudible. Vocals are very harsh but sometimes become too high and one has the impression of Donald Duck is shouting at his nephews. But overall the vocal work is okay, there's not only screaming but also a few spoken and clean sung parts.
Well, of course this is nothing new or innovative so far, just good old-school true norwegian Black Metal in the old vein. Decide for yourself...I like it!
For many of the 1990s Scandinavian scene's elites, the tried-and-true formula for pure evil black metal had ceased to provide sufficient inspiration around the turn of the century. Bands like Emperor and Enslaved gradually included more technical and progressive elements; meanwhile, artists like Ulver and - briefly - Mayhem pivoted away from metal into more experimental territories. Yet the fire those bands had ignited was continuing to burn bright among its disciples, with a new generation of bands leading the crusade against the fetid light of christ.
One such band is Svartpest - perhaps not "leaders" in terms of influence, but certainly a step or two ahead of the pack in terms of quality. Nothing here is particularly high-concept - though you'd be forgiven for expecting it to be, considering the several-minute intro whose folk-instrument melodies and horrified shrieks seem to depict the sacking of a medieval village. But indeed, once the songs begin in earnest, there is little to cling to except the harsh riffs and knuckle-dragging drums. It's amateurish, but it's genuine.
Case in point: it's hard not to laugh at the stop-start intro of "I skapelsen av det kolde," but it does at least provide one of several opportunities to hear Condatis Svarthjarte's vocals very clearly. They're hard on the ears in the best kind of way - I cannot imagine that any serious effort was made to sound "cool," just to communicate the message in a way that fits the vileness of the music. The same is true of his sloppy baritone cleans, which don't appear too often but show up at least regularly enough that it isn't jarring to hear them again.
At risk of overstating the point, this same combination of roughness and genuineness carries through the necro riffing and cheap-sounding keyboards. So much of this album consists of the band repeating the same riff over and over, or even the same chord - yet it doesn't get boring. The keys sound weak and chintzy, but it doesn't sound fake or underproduced. The mixing is frankly poor, with the snare drum and vocals too high and everything else too low - yet even this cannot damage the sound enough to matter. This is exactly what it purports to be: a document of a band who gives a shit about black metal working within their means.
All this works because the album itself works. While, as I mentioned, the record is hardly conceptual, it still follows a deliberate arc. The structure and pacing here is much better than I would expect from its era; many black metal albums released in the early aughts register either as failed concept records or as simple collections of largely unrelated songs. Svartpest sidesteps both, and simply offers a damn well-made album. It isn't as "classic" as its predecessors (or even many of its contemporaries) but it still earns its place on the shelf of the student of Scandinavian black witchery.
Sample:
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