SVARTTJERN - Towards the Ultimate (AGONIA Records - LP 2011)
I must admit that I’ve been really waiting to
hear this LP, ever since I’ve found the news about Agonia Records and
Svarttjern singing the pact and about the second full length of this Norwegian
act, which came out last year (2011). It’s all due to the fact that I really
liked “Misanthropic Path of Madness”, Svarttjern’s debut LP, which was simply a
devastating piece of Norwegian black metal cult. All news about “Towards the
Ultimate” were very promising and finally I purchased the vinyl copy of it. I
took a chance to buy a red vinyl version, which is limited to 100 copies only
and I must say that I really like the layout for it. The front artwork looks
very impressive and so does the rest of the design for “Towards the Ultimate”,
including the inner sleeve, with those live photos of the band, all coloured in
red. Cool! The red vinyl is also pleasant to an eye, so I was pretty sure that
the music will be killer also!
And… well, I am sorry to say that but I feel
really disappointed with “Towards the Ultimate”! I have no fuckin’ idea what
happened to Svarttjern, but their second LP isn’t even half as great as the
debut and as overall I feel it is just mediocre piece of black metal. It seems
like the band has lost everything what was their main strengths on
“Misanthropic Path of Madness”, which is very unfortunate and disappointing. I
feel bored, when I listen to this new LP, it seems like there aren’t any songs,
which – just like “Code Human” – would just fuckin skin me alive, the whole
album is very powerless and goes by without much effect.
While the production of “Towards the Ultimate”
is not so bad, although I liked the sound on “Misanthropic Path of Madness” more
(because – I say that again – it simply was more energetic and violent), then
the songwriting seems to be the biggest problem here. Svarttjern just didn’t
compose as many killer songs this time, most of them tends to be very mediocre
and not as strong, and at the same time the playing isn’t really influential
and do not cause any effect on me, as the listener. I don’t feel devoured by the
atmosphere of this LP and often I’m rather annoyed that the band just couldn’t
reveal some more passion, anger and hatred in these sounds. I said already that
the album is much less powerful and devastating that the previous one, but what
else can I write, when the music on “Towards the Ultimate” seems to be slower
and often even more melodic than the stuff from “Misanthropic Path of Madness”
and the riffing is often so dull that it’s almost forgettable? They (Svarttjern)
may have putted more accents on the atmospheric side of the music, but that
caused the lack of fury. The previous LP was a whirl of aggression and
possession, this one is much more tempered and often just begs for something
more.
OK, there are some faster and also more killer
songs, like the opening one, titled “Breathing Soil”, which is relatively good
track. The riffing in it is venomous, furious, but it also builds a freezing
atmosphere. There are also some more generally great fragments on the album: like
“Aroused Self-Extinction”, which finally starts like a decent ejaculation of
violence and negation of morality, with a real storm of blasting drums and
slashing riffng. With these two tracks they do remind me bands like Enthroned,
Tsjuder or Ragnarok… Another worthy songs would probably be “Through Madness
and Sanity I am...”… But these are just exceptions. “Towards the Ultimate” is
dominated by such tracks as “Hellig Jord” for instance, which on its own isn’t
so bad, but when you have more songs in very similar vein, then you start to
fall asleep and that’s not something, what I am really happy about. You’ve got “Hellig
Jord” and then “Superior Growth” is also slower, so it quickly gets monotonous.
Sure, “Superior Growth” speeds up somewhere in the middle, but it doesn’t help
in providing more powerful energy, especially that “I am the Path, part II” or “Desolate
Predictions” are also in this same category of songs. So, my impression is that
not only neither of these songs distinguishes with something exceptional and
killer, but they all also sound terribly similar and monotonous… they’re not so
bad on their own, but when compiled together into a 40 minutes long album then
they start to bore me a little. From all those slower songs I think I like “For
What Blooms Without Lust” most; it has great classic black metal riffing in the
beginning, it builds freezing atmosphere, only to speed up in the middle and
finally finish everything with the most melodious riff on the whole LP. But the
effect is much better here than on the rest of the album, so I can say that I
like this track a lot.
Conclusion is only one – damn big frustration. And
I’m quite surprised that this is yet another release from Agonia Records, which
disappointed me. I mean there were albums from bands like Necrovation, Mr Death
and now also Svarttjern, which aren’t that terribly bad, they’re fine, but my
expectations from them were much, much bigger! I don’t know why, but I do
prefer “Breed Deadness Blood” over “Necrovation”, “Tetra Karcist” over “Obsidium”
and now I sincerely must say that I like “Misanthropic Path of Madness” much
more than “Towards the Ultimate”. Is this Agonia Records’ curse or something?
Anyway, the impact the debut had on me was much, much bigger, while this second
LP is annoyingly average and in many places also forgettable… which is sad. “Towards
the Ultimate” will catch the attention of some people, personally I still have
some faith in this young band, but I hope that they can reveal something far
greater in the future.
Standout tracks: “Aroused Self-Extinction”, “Breathing
Soil”, “Through Madness and Sanity I am...”, “For What Blooms Without Lust”
Final rate: 68/100
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