Artist: Sorgeldom
Title: Inner Receivings
Type: Album
Label: Nordvis Productions

This second effort from Sorgeldom fits in with the fairly recent phenomenon of bands mixing black metal with a post-rock influence, and it’s really not difficult to believe they began life as an acoustic project. The Swedish act may be new to my ears, but with Inner Receivings they sure make one hell of an impression. Things get off to a strong start, with ‘I Kloaken Lattar’ strutting straight in with a brazen riff that really seems to be on the prowl. No mucking about; no testing the waters with a gentle intro, just straight to the point! From there things get wilder and more chaotic, with a harsh blackened backbone driving things along nicely as we are introduced to the unforgiving vocal rasps of Dr. Sunden. There’s a competent shift in time signature as all is thrown in the air and mixed about, a new and formidable riff emerging as drums crash manically in the background, and eventually everything disperses into the ether and all that’s left is a faint drum pattern and strained guitar that sounds incredibly haunting and there’s something very eerie about the seemingly calm repetition here.

‘The Cold Empty Void’ really lures you in with its resplendent bassline and hypnotic guitar sound, before all picks up into a storming, blackened furore. At times you can detect genuine ferocity in the blasting drums and harsh, angry guitars while things are richly layered with beautifully crafted melodies to balance things out even on the most aggressive sounding tracks. There is no blasting for hells sake – despite the chaos things always sound tight, there are no weak, superfluous riffs and the transitions between the loud blackened madness and the gentle acoustic moments are fluid and effortless. While it’s hard sometimes to put my finger on what is wrong with an album in this vein, when you hear an album this strong it really puts things into perspective. Following track, ‘Vintern Var Hard’ is a warm remedy to the previous cold, empty void and there is nothing empty about this. Beginning with a wondrous and sorrow-tinged guitar line, this works its magic slowly, as an understated drum beat gradually starts to back it up. As the other guitar joins in, it’s a beautiful aural tapestry that is weaved creating a truly spellbinding melody.

There’s a certain grandeur to ‘I Vantan Pa Telefonsamtalet,’ mixed together with an other-worldly guitar sound that has almost a cosmic, spacey vibe that is certainly unconventional. ‘Darskapens Karneval’ marches ahead with a brazen swagger while the lonesome guitar never strays far. Along with ‘Inner Receivings’ this is one of the more straightforward, head-bang-friendly numbers…well, as much as is possible for such a complex album as this one. At times this one thrashes like mad, and then changes pace with little warning, dropping into a reflective, clean post-rock jaunt where the clean vocals are an impassioned wail and are well and truly captivating; Paganic in a Negura Bunget sense of the word. ‘Summer Day’ is by far the most mellowed out track on the album and also a real highlight. The guitars are delectably dreamy, wrapping themselves around a plodding Goth rock drum beat that I would attribute to Fields Of The Nephilim. This gradually takes precedence, while the guitars become more of an ethereal haunting in the background and the wistful quasi-gothic wails of ‘I’d fly away on a summers day’ sound stunning. Overall this is an incredibly strong album that is highly recommended to fans of Agalloch, Solstafir and generally ambient post-black metal strangeness.

http://www.myspace.com/sorgeldom