Sweden’s Domgard are a band not short on underground black metal credentials. They originally formed way back in 1997, but until recently had only a handful of obscure demos to their name, with all prospects of an album release having long been frustrated by sporadic line-up changes, incarcerations for church-burning and the departure and subsequent suicide of longstanding vocalist Illbrand. Domgard eventually became reduced to sole original member Vindkall, but in recent years has risen from the ashes once more with a newly-replenished line-up of four, resulting finally in the recording of their debut full-length ‘I Nifelhels Skygd’.
The band’s self-proclaimed aesthetic of Nordic mythology crossed with chaos-gnosis, earthy pagan mysticism and ‘anti-cosmic philosophy’ immediately bring to mind a number of bands, particularly fellow countrymen Arckanum and Dissection, and indeed the album proves to be heavily musically influenced by both of these, but the strongest influence of all is perhaps Watain, echoes of whose twisting, sepulchral riffs weave in and out of the songs with great frequency. Opening track ‘Nidhoggr’ illustrates these influences as well as any, mixing discordant-and-chaotic, occult-drenched melodic riffs, punkish grooves, and interludes of stark and dissonant guitar with beautiful passages of rousing, blistering melody that will likely raise a smile from fans of Winterfylleth’s latest offering. It’s all very convincingly done, and likewise the harsh, multi-layered, rasped vocals are suitably powerful and well-executed throughout the album.
Second track-proper ‘Det Morka Trolska Djupet’ manages to mix blend the aforementioned Watain-worship with a hint of De Mysteriis Don Sathanas-era Mayhem, the hypnotic one-dimensionality of Judas Iscariot and the coarse, downtuned bounciness of Taake to great effect, and indeed there is a strong reliance on playing cold, melodic riffing off against crunchy, catchy bridges throughout ‘I Nifelhels Skygd’s duration. ‘Svartdraugars likfard’ for example, following a warm acoustic opening that sounds borrowed from Forgotten Tomb, goes on to contrast grinding, depressive riffing and half-delirious, meandering melodies with some seriously chunky punk breakdowns and an accompanying homage to a certain Mr Warrior with an obligatory cry of ‘UGH!!’ . Whist gratifying, there is in truth both a certain derivativeness and an occasional cut-and-paste feel here, and at times it’s hard to shake the feeling that the current incarnation of Domgard is still struggling to find its own identity. On the other hand though, the band are sufficiently talented and their influences sufficiently varied that their scattergun approach to black metal manages to be both engaging and atmospheric, even if the seams are still visible from time to time.
‘Rimfrostens Ande’ is a lot more convincing and emotive, thanks in part to a greatly-improved use of momentum, unleashing some epic tremolo riffing of the pure Dissection variety before kicking into a galloping, dirty groove and building to a powerful mid-paced plateau that slowly falls away as a dread-filled riff a la Mutiilation drags the song’s mood back down into the depths. ‘Gravlaet I Skyminsrok’ takes yet another approach, coming across like a mix between Taake and Negura Bunget, with rasped screams, furious depressive riffing and downtuned punk/doomy hooks fitting around euphoric synths, acoustic flourishes, rumbling stop-start guitars, clean Nordic singing and mystical, earthy chanting. The Negura influence is arguably a little too obvious here and the combination shouldn’t work, but damn it, it just does.
Elsewhere the album is less ferocious and more meandering, with ‘Morkridors Drottning’ successfully merging eerie, labyrinthine riffs with bridges of crunchy doom and a heavy reliance on some cheesy-but-effective keyboards with more than a hint of early Dimmu Borgir about them. ‘Au Muspells Eldar Kront’ operates similarly, this time balancing the thick synths with some angular riffs that occasionally blossom into a cold, majestic melody that could easily be from ‘Storm of the Light’s Bane’, the whole thing held together by a catchy and urgent up-tempo bridge that kicks in mid-song. These less urgent tracks do come in danger of sounding a little pedestrian and predictable at times, but they are still sufficiently atmospheric, if not particularly inventive. Last song-proper ‘Over Nidfjall Mot Tom Hetens Dald’ winds the album right down, pitting mournful and drawn-out melodies with a depressive shoegaze feel to them against defiant, mid-paced grooves that hint at Primordial, whilst gentle, euphoric meanderings come up against last-gasp surges of energetic riffing and an eventual plunge into miserable gothic doom territory before the last of the momentum ebbs away completely. It sounds a little lazy perhaps in places, but then arguably it’s supposed to, and in any case it sets things up nicely for outro ‘Il Niflhels Skygd’, which is actually a really rather good 6-minute piece of soothing, minimalist, ambient synth that brings the album to a satisfying and atmospheric close. Saying that, it is astonishingly similar to the keyboard interlude midway through ‘Filosofem’, but it works well all the same.
Despite the odd bit of underdeveloped songwriting here and there and a little uncertainty concerning its musical identity, ‘ Il Niflhels Skygd’ is ultimately a very promising debut that does a great job of bringing together its influences to create some very potent and darkly atmospheric black metal. Whilst the new line-up arguably need to gel more as a songwriting unit and to further develop their own signature sound, they clearly possess the requisite ability, understanding and passion and just need time to bring it fully to fruition. Long may the anti-cosmic rituals continue!
http://www.myspace.com/domgard
