ALBUM REVIEW: Ulvesang, "The Hunt"

By: Richard Maw

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 16/03/2018

Label: Nordvis

The Hunt is bleak, dark and quite beautiful, highly evocative of nature and all that is fresh and clean. If this sounds like your kind of thing, it will be. This is a fantastic record.

“The Hunt” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Invocation

2). The Trial

3). The Dance

4). The End

5). The Hunt

6). The Break

7). The Run

8). The Gloom

9). The Truth

10). Močvara/Мочвара

The Review:

Ulvesang play folk- or neofolk/dark folk to be more accurate and hail not from Sweden or Norway but from Canada- still the Frozen North, so quite fitting. The two piece specialise in very dark but pretty acoustic textures. Being as this is an instrumental work (or without lyrics at least), what images it conjures up are a matter for the individual listener, but I would imagine that many listeners would find the sound and atmosphere here to be evocative of the forest, leaf and stream and all that is natural.

It is perhaps odd to some that this might fit right in alongside black metal, but not for me. It is bleak, it is dark, it is quite beautiful- similar to the very best of the black metal genre. Fans of Winterfylleth, eagerly awaiting their forthcoming acoustic record, and fans of the more ethereal work of Ulver and so on will find much to enjoy here.

The opening intro of “Invocation” sets the mood and the mood does not falter from there on, whether it be the bitter-sweet “The Trial” or the wistfully bleak “The End”- the textures are richly dark. However, the feel is not necessarily cold; there is melancholy and bleakness but the album is never grim; maudlin might be a better description. The ten tracks are all highly evocative of nature and all that is fresh and clean. If this sounds like your kind of thing, it will be. A fantastic record.

“The Hunt”is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Ancient VVisdom - "33"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 13/10/2017

Label: Argonauta Records (CD) |

Magic Bullet Records (DD) |

DHU Records (LP)

Like the morning star it praises, Ancient VVisdom is more deceptive than you realize. It heralds that section of the genre that is far darker than even the loudest bands while doing a style you don't recognize is nearly this cursed. "33" is going to live on for quite some time.

“33” CD//DD//LP track listing

1. Ascending Eternally

2. Light of Lucifer

3. In the Name of Satan

4. True Will

5. The Infernal One

6. Summoning Eternal Light

7. Rise Fallen Angel

8. 33

9. The Great Beast

10. Lux

11. Dispelling Darkness

The Review:

Metal music has since its dawn been preoccupied with the visage of Beelzebub. Whether it was Ozzy Osbourne conjuring the idea of Satan's love in "N.I.B." or mainstream heavy rock like Ghost calling out to the "old one, master," Satan has been that ultimate taboo in music. For metal, the Devil has also been the totem of rejecting all convention. And though there have been many incursions into popular culture, it would seem metal music's fixation with the sinister and demons may always be part.

So when a recording comes across that embodies some of that dark spirit, it almost feels like splitting hairs to argue how it qualifies as metal. In Ancient VVisdom's case, it indubitably does.

The Austin-based trio formed in 2009 and have three releases – 2011's "A Godlike Inferno”, 2013's "Deathlike" and 2014's "Sacrificial" – as well as a rather infamous 2010 split disc with incarcerated mass murderer Charles Mansonon their resume. Its first full length in three years, "33," is alternately inspired by a variety of meanings for the number, including the birth year that Jesus Christ was crucified. The horrific vibe never quite goes away from there.

If you have not heard the group prior, Ancient VVisdom is metal in the first-wave death rock or the folkloric styles you may recall rose to prominence in metal in the early 2000s. "33" is thus largely rooted in acoustic music, without drum and sparing electric guitar. The focus of Ancient VVisdom is Nathan Opposition, vocalist and songwriter. He's crucial, because Ancient VVisdomis nothing if not a lyrical act whose songs and stories are its reason for being.

To be clear, Ancient VVisdom has magnificent instrumentation. Whether it is the guitar, synths or hints of percussion, the minimal nature of "33" means all of it has to count even more than the average band. However, Ancient VVisdom's Satanic verses drive the music for the most part. Indeed Nathan Opposition's vocals set up much of the art that is here. "Ascending Eternally"opens like a hymn, while "Light of Lucifer" begins the release smoothly out of that hymn into a chord that you might hear around the fire at a church's summer camp. However, this is no revival.

Songs like "Summoning Eternal Light"and "The Great Beast"musically deliver the crunch you might more expect from metal, whereas "Rise Fallen Angel" is Ancient VVisdom's closest foray into heavy rock. These selections and a handful of others are not ultraviolent songs. They're musically savvy, but as with other cuts, the imagery of the occult, Lucifer and the great unknown are the true canvas.

Like the morning star it praises, Ancient VVisdom is more deceptive than you realize. It heralds that section of the genre that is far darker than even the loudest bands while doing a style you don't recognize is nearly this cursed. "33" is going to live on for quite some time.

"33" is available digitally here, CD here and eventually on vinyl here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp