18 April 2024
“Pensive melancholy about the past”. That’s what Vemod roughly means in English. I’ve known Eskil Blix (drums, percussion, vocals) from Djevel but I haven’t known either Vemod or Jan Even Åsli up to this album.
As we learned from their statements, the main man of the band, Åsli, counts Norwegian black metal giants such as Darkthrone, Satyricon and neoclassical darkwave veterans Dead Can Dance as his main sources of inspiration. Although their music is considered within Black metal genre, the members do not define their own music as such. They name their style “Dark Ethereal Metal”.
If we evaluate it in terms of musical black metal influences, it is clear that they are inspired by the bands mentioned. With the influence of Eskil Blix being in the band, Djevel is one of the names that come to mind while listening. There are shoegaze influences, although not as dominant as in bands like Alcest. Musically they resemble bands like Wiegedood and Amenra as well, especially in terms of experimentalism and versatility.
By bringing these interactions together and embellishing them with non-metal musical influences, they created a work that resembles a film score. There are 6 songs and 2 of them are instrumental, including the intro track. With the intense influence of the synthesizers played by Kalstad (bass, synthesizers) and Åsli, such a music that offers a different listening experience compared to all sources of inspiration has emerged.
Honestly, I’ve been listening to the album frequently since it was released and it wasn’t easy to get into it at first. Both screams that we are accustomed to in black/extreme metal and clean vocals were used abundantly in the album. The interesting part of the album is that a set of interactions that could sound structurally harsh are interestingly brought down to a more easily listening body. It’s as if a black metal album was taken, its factory settings were stretched via different effects, and the result is a music that doesn’t fit into stereotypes. The album calms down completely at certain moments and creates cinematographic soundscapes accompanied by all kinds of beauties of the untrodded nature; forests, streams and valleys. At least that’s how I feel while listening to it.
They set out with certain patterns and eventually achieved a much more original creation. It is not an album for those who are looking for harshness in their music and want to find the classic black metal feeling. Jan Even Åsli also stated that they did not adopt the negativist attitude felt in black metal in general, and that they wanted to give a positive feeling. It’s not a typical metal album, but I think it will make the listener happy. I myself am satisfied with the result.
8,5/10
