It's not often I appreciate the sounds of black metal, though when something comes across the underground that clicks just right, I find myself wrapped up in its chaotic woes and blackened steam. After having a similar experience to Burzum's 1994 classic Hvis Lyset Tar Oss earlier this year, I was fueled on a determined quest to find something of similar impact. Looking back I don't recall where I found it, but I do remember why when I came across Srodek's Förfall, I had to listen to it. It was the album's desolate cover art, like a photographic interpretation of what black metal should sound like. Though soon after it was the music behind the photograph I really came to appreciate.
There's something pleasantly appealing about Förfall that sets it apart from its closest of relatives. The album is a mellower listen throughout, with simplistically grimy instrumentals that hold a strong emphasis on atmosphere, rather than blazing-fast tempos and scorching guitar riffs. On the aptly titled "Bleak", its sappy melancholy lo-fi is kept at a moderate tempo, as Srodek wails his cursed lyrics from beyond the grave. The album keeps a relatively easy-tempo'd pace throughout, but the sprawling "Vågtjärns Svarta Vatten" is evidence that melancholy can be a lion-hearted affair of grandiose instrumentation. Though the album's strongest attribute is the nestling, acoustic-tuned rage of the album's title track, evoking an oddly nostalgic sense of exhilaration.
Even in all of Srodek's villainous fury, sounding like what might as well be a distant Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda series, there's something wildly comforting about the album, like a cozy fire in the heart of a snow-draped forest, that manages to run through the blood of all of these tracks. Oddly enough, the album sounds reminiscent of a black metal-slowcore outing (or simply a black metal Red House Painters), or an early 90s alternative band in corpse paint. That sense of familiarity is the torch that potentially non-black metal or even non-metal fans could appreciate within the album. And if it's worth anything, Förfall is one of the most engrossing metal experiences of the year.
[Srodek Myspace]
[Buy Förfall from ATMF/A Sad Sadness Song]
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