Beats and yelling: Svartsyn

Vortex of the Destroyer
Out 28^th March on NoEvDi Records

One could read Svartsyn as a direct descendant of ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’. In the sense that this is one way of achieving a “post riff” form of black metal without leaning on ambience. Rudimentary riffs are still present and correct, but their existence is now fully integrated into the intensity of the rhythm section as to be almost one and the same, and through these determined, consistent blast-beats, they forge a throughline of driving momentum. This creates the necessary foundation for lead guitar material to freeride on top of these waves of energy. I say “lead” in the loosest sense of the term. Whilst individual refrains could be picked out, what makes up the forefront of this material is an informal wash of basic chord progressions and proto-melodic material, making greater use of phrasing, strumming patters, open and closed strings, and various other textural qualities of the distorted guitar, as opposed to clarity of riff contouring itself.

Svartsyn double down on this approach via the vocal articulation, which adopts a more informal, performance art framing to navigate these bulgingly dark corridors. Tonally resting somewhere between a typical mid-range black metal style and a cleaner, hardcore bark, the intensity and unpredictable phrasing offers a welcome if uncomfortable syncopation with the rhythm section.

The payoff is an album that functions as a series of waves defined by a shifting intensity as opposed to individual compositions built from the manipulation of riff. The fact that the pitch rarely shifts – aside from the scant melodic material that tends to join in the latter half of a track – creates a tension, compounded by the peeks and troughs of speed and layers of additional guitar noise, furthered by the vocals gradually shifting gear between different tiers of rage. That this tension rarely pays off brings the experience closer to the linear pulses of industrial, as the pieces are largely content to settle into homogenous exercises in textural accumulation and depletion. But this in itself should be considered a virtue. By never letting the music reach a place of resolution despite the painstaking effort to create these subtle, incremental builds throughout the course of each track, Svartsyn only cement their intention to move beyond an over reliance on chord and riff themselves whilst sidelining the greater currency that can be garnered from playing technique, tone, and simple contrasting layers alone.

In this sense Svartsyn’s debt to ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’ is interesting from two angles. One is their ability to get beneath the surface of the album’s striking aesthetic and discover the novel approach Euronymous landed on when bringing the – by then – well rehearsed material to life in the studio. To date, the majority of Mayhem’s ancestors appear only capable of replicating a facsimile through vibe and aesthetic, leaving the mechanics beneath the high gothic atmosphere unexamined. Mechanics which largely arose from Euronymous’s developing style atop Hellhammer’s oscillations between rigid speed and jazz fluidity.

The other angle is Svartyn’s development of a form of ambience by sleight of hand. The reason Burzum and Darkthrone remain the most copied of the Norwegian crop is the ease with which their formula can be simulated (but never bettered apparently). In eschewing this low hanging fruit Svartsan land in an intriguing place. One that moves a step beyond the tyranny of the riff whilst still parlaying with it as an efficacious technique. By anchoring it to a confident yet direct rhythm section it gains the freedom to explore beyond the limitation of metal guitar playing whilst still delivering a raw, visceral, and highly physical experience in direct contrast to the usual passivity of ambient black metal.