It was only in the deepest throes of last winter when I got to hear Aurvandil for the first time and reviewed their Ferd EP. It was the perfect time of year for such a frosty listening experience too. It may be summer, or what is excused for it at the moment but there is no lessening up of the icy bite of this new album at all; the cover illustrating a cloaked voyager traipsing through snow-laden mountains is the perfect accompaniment to the music within. As I said previously, little is known about this French one man act but Aurvandil has been fairly consistent on the release front delivering various demos, splits and that EP to date, all leading up to this, his debut album. Apparently the muse has been joined on this album by Wiedergaenger who provides ‘thunderous scorn’ so I am guessing that means he has drafted in a session drummer and also he has utilised The Austrasian Goat to deal with the mix.
Starting the journey with an acoustic pagan sounding instrumental, atmosphere builds as we are led into first proper track ‘End Of Age.’ A nice echoed vocal yap meets the mid paced instrumentation and things quickly build up to craggy, mountainous peaks. There is a lot of melody about things and at times it has a bit of a folk feel but in the true pagan sounding Norse sense rather than any joviality. If you had not got to grips with any theme yet you should with tracks like ‘Reign Of Ice’ divided into two parts on the album. Musically there is a grandiose feel to things throughout. Sometimes different aspects are really brought out in the mix such as guitar sound which can suddenly jaggedly sparkle and attack high and above everything else. Drums maintain a thunderous beat and the songs can be fairly complex reaching up to ten minutes in length.
It really does feel like this is a sound that has been forged in mountainous terrain and has a really classic black metal sound about it. This time I was not only thinking of the obvious Norse bands but was drawn back to the cold Austrian ice age of early Abigior too. Vocals are quite proficient but are not really utilised to be in your face or above the strong instrumental prowess, at times you even forget they are there until they suddenly rasp back into action and snap at you.
So if the sun is beating down and really pissing you off and you are craving darkness, and the cold icy touch of winter this should go down a treat. Now if only I could pronounce or even spell their name…..
http://loomofthevoid.net/aurvandil
http://www.eisenton.de
Pete Woods
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