Ildjarn - Det Frysende Nordariket (1995)

Huh, I've only posted one black metal album so far? This strikes me as odd, since I am grim and hateful (I just got my ears pierced at Claire's). However, after a bit of consideration, it makes a lot of sense, since black metal, as a genre, has very few recordings that are actually worth listening to. It's extremely easy to make albums sound like Hvis Lyset Tar Oss or Transilvanian Hunger without even understanding anything at all about what is actually great about those records. This perfect form, no substance phenomenon is also quite prevalent in genres such as hardcore and shoegaze.

That said, Ildjarn, although a kindred spirit in minimalism, doesn't sound much like Burzum or Darkthrone. Binary pairs of Discharge riffs have evolved syncopation and chromaticism through sliding fifths as a feral response to agrarian decadence. Drums provide a loose tempo structure, a blundering pulse with too many errors to truly achieve the ambience of some of Ildjarn's more technically skilled peers. These are the sounds that your firing synapses make as you imagine running off into the woods; this is the rawest, most primitive, most emotional music.

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