Album of the week (or rather month?): Kampfar - Heimgang

 

To the idea behind the album of the week, go here.    

Lately I've found it quite difficult to keep up this tradition which goes to show how hard it is to firmly implement a habit in your life. Work & obligations are a steady (and at times) rather unwanted partner at your side and in these moments listening to an hour or two of music seems kind of superfluous, which as some art critics, artists and philosophers have pointed out time and time again, might be the whole point of art: the "uselessness" of art on a mere practical level. But every time I allow myself to venture into this (on the face of it) superfluous and richly vague, but richly meaningful realm, I come back to the necessary practicalities of life refreshed and with a (albeit only temporary (alas!)) bigger perspective.

Moving on from these reflections, this week (as winter has finally come on here) I decided to once more dive into the precious and at times snowy, freezing, mysterious, hateful, yearning, melanchonic, aggressive, majestic or even suicidal genre that is black metal. A few years back, I saw Kampfar live at a festival. I'd never heard their music before, but decided to stay for their gig and was pleasantly suprised by their music. 

I never followed up on that gig, so this week I decided to pick on of their albums and give it a proper go. "Heimgang" comes at fist sight across as your traditional norwegian black metal: norwegian lyrics, raspy vocals and traditional instrumental set-up (with very, very few exceptions). But listening to the album, I found their sound to be somewhat unique. It is not the nihilistic, hateful sound of early Darkthrone nor the majestic iciness of later Immortal. It's also not the symphonic elegance of early Emperor nor the blind aggression of Marduk (around 2000). It hovers somewhere between early Gorgoroth and Burzum, but the sound has a distinctive naturalistic and understated pagan/folksy touch. 

On the whole, the album proved to be quite homogeneous and it is difficult to pick out particular songs. This might not sound like an enthusiastic endorsement, but I have to admit I'm rather intrigued by their sound. All songs, I thought, were characterized by a certain nordic pride, tinged with the slightest melanchonic yearning of reaching a place of repose (hence, perhaps, the title "Heimgang"). I might have to listen to a few more of their records. For now, this will have to do.

Standout track: "Skogens dyp", the haunting "Vettekult" & the atmospheric closer "Vandring".