Ildjarn haunts Norwegian black metal discourse. A benchmark of monomania. A persistent, violent, unremitting meditational cycle around the raw materials of black metal, unrefined, in their crudest form. Further, his work renders 99% of subsequent raw black metal utterly redundant. The scorched earth left in his wake means there is very little to add. The reductivism Ildjarn engaged in was both necessary by 1995 and a complete dead end. He came closer than any to the central kernel of black metal, beyond riff, melody, posture, or concept. A pure, immediate, unadulterated experience of noise. Mimicking the warped sense of self and time one might feel when confronted by nature in total solitude.
But to many, Ildjarn will forever be a hack, and the preceding description complete twaddle. In this context, Nidhogg deserves a great deal of appreciation for his achievements during his collaborations with Ildjarn. The reason this partnership worked so well was precisely because Nidhogg did not seek to temper or otherwise curtail Ildjarn’s creative instincts. But he managed to force them into a serviceable foundation for something new, much to Ildjarn’s chagrin at times it seems. An entity that retained the purity of Ildjarn, but injected just enough melodic coherence to charm a wider audience. Their joint work – especially on Sort Vokter’s ‘Folkloric Necro Metal’ – is perhaps the truest heir of Burzum and Darkthrone circa 1994. This oddball cooperative also involved Tvigygre, and Heiinghund, only the former of which has put out material of his own (confusingly as Heiinghund), and many years after ‘Folkloric Necro Metal’. It integrates the raw punk instincts of Ildjarn with trancey, hypnotic waves of repetition borrowed from electronica and ambient, expressed either through grainy guitars or ethereal synth patches.
It is this interplay between ambience, barbarically hostile metal, and elegantly sequenced harmonies borrowed from trance that makes this album such a unique prospect. Lightning in a bottle. And one of the few examples of a true collaboration in the sense that – speaking of Ildjarn and Nidhogg in particular as little is known about the other two members especially at the time this material was recorded – each individual’s abilities are both elevated whilst contributing to a wider whole. Indeed, listening to Nidhogg’s sole EP released in 2015, it’s also apparent how much Ildjarn’s penchant for punk rubbed off on him. The integration of that fluid, almost supernatural melodic motion is lacking on his later work. In some ways making the Sort Vokter material that bit more compelling. A singular alcove of Norwegian black metal delivered at the tail end of the scene’s creative peek.
I’ll freely admit how often I overlook Immortal’s debut. The difference between this and ‘Pure Holocaust’ may not be quite as stark as the shift Darkthrone made following ‘Soulside Journey’, but it is dramatic nonetheless. In many ways the reliance on “traditional” melody, typical signifiers of that nebulous “epic” aesthetic, especially in the closing track, along with an almost orchestral bombast and pomp, all are things that would be dug up again following ‘Blizzard Beasts’ and Demonaz’s departure, albeit in a highly processed and Disneyfied form under Abbath’s stewardship.
Whereas the “classic” Immortal style across ‘Pure Holocaust’ through to ‘’Blizzard Beasts’ is near abstract performance art given how convoluted it is as an expression of combative naturalism, ‘Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism’ is far more literal, leaning on classic gothic and horror tropes – the “mysticism” in the title being entirely apt – as much as the grandiosity of early Emperor. Superficially this comes through in the use of eerie interludes, timpani drums, and Demonaz’s lead guitar work that is much more direct and tempered than the follow up. A much more pronounced use of slower, funereal riff patterns, minor key tremolo runs, a linearity hinting at symphonic forms – for instance one of the riffs towards the end of ‘Call of the Winter Moon’ would be quite at home on ‘In the Nightside Eclipse’ – and a bouncy pageantry that calls to mind early Graveland.
The death metal genetics are also far more obvious. Disruptive tangents and half step deviations heightening the tense, alienating violence calling to mind the parallel evolutions still ongoing despite the open hostility brewing between the scenes at this time. The fact that Armagedda was always a heavy metal drummer at heart plays a big role here as well. He can certainly blast along with the best of them, – certainly better than Abbath – but his insistence on anchoring many of the riffs in a solid back-beat forces Demonaz into more deviational melodic forms. Indeed their interchanges make for one of the fascinating what-ifs of black metal. Given just how dominant Demonaz was to become on the three albums that followed, both melodically but also in terms of the fact that he took Immortal into a much less percussive place due to the restrictions placed upon them.
I was not kind to Ravenous Death following the release of ‘Visions from the Netherworld’ in 2022. As far I can recall it was marked down for the not inconsiderable crime of inflated runtime – a blight on modern extreme metal at large – and an adherence to rigid structural forms bordering on restrictive. It should be acknowledged that this latter feature is something I find myself increasingly craving and praising when confronted with it precisely because knowledge of how to compose like this is gradually decaying out of the metal community. But I felt that in this regard Ravenous Death seem to have overcorrected, ending with a work both admirable for its coherence, yet so by-the-numbers as to leave one feeling somewhat nonplussed.
Every critic should admit when they may have been mistaken however. Indeed, parsing a constant stream of new music has a degrading affect on one’s faculties at times. It should also be noted that we do not make enough space for airing new insights in the few years following newer releases. I still believe ‘Visions from the Netherworld’ requires a twenty minute trim certainly. But there’s a sense in which I was being harder on Ravenous Death precisely because I saw the potential in them, and their obvious distinction as an artist of quality within the current milieu of death metal.
There is a lawless charm buried beneath the superficial formality. For example, their use of d-beat violence collided with faster passages defined by a straight up speed metal rhythmic contouring, something contemporary wisdom understands as blackened thrash. But these elements are smuggled beneath a veneer of simple yet effective death metal melodic forms that they go almost unnoticed. The latter of which pivot on basic, repeated phrases atop a chord progression working on a slightly different timeline, creating rudimentary but effective sequences out of their cyclical nature. The resulting sensation is of sinking, submerging, of an overwhelming weight that continues to compound and grow as the album progresses. Indeed, it should be noted that Ravenous Death’s preference for the longform also serves them well here, allowing the full breadth of these techniques to air out. Minimalist and strikingly atmospheric by death metal standards.
In this regard a strong case could be made for Ravenous Death working closer to black metal territory, or maybe we should say dark metal. Many of the melodic shapes warrant comparison to Mefitis circa Emberdawn, albeit presented more in template form here. But when placed in its proper context, a template is all that may be required to motivate these pieces, positioning Ravenous Death as a strikingly leftfield prospect when taken against their contemporaries.
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