Valravne

When you get to these obscure albums, one man band things thrust upon the internet, things that no one had asked for, never wanted, that we have too many of, expectations could not be lower. So from that perspective perhaps I am grading this record on the steepest of curves, because that may be the only justification for how much I enjoyed it.

When hitting play on such a record, you anticipate potato recording style, cacophonous trebly noise that punctures your inner ear. What you get with Valravne is a soft intro of a simple synth pad, into clean arpegiatting guitar, and then a barrage of cleanly produced blast beats and tremolo guitar. Further in the album you find constant variation, with some tracks that, dare I say, groove (I Must Die) tracks that twist and wind (Taken on the Sun), and tracks that do all the above with a push and pull between pummeling swagger and crushing desperation (Nero). The guitar work is impressive. As aforementioned, the album is recorded with a modern clean, tight, big production.

The theme of the album is contempt. It begins with contempt at the self (lays it on a bit thick with song titles like “I Must Die”) and as the album develops the contempt spreads outward, with lyrics in “Taken on the Sun” like “The human race was a mistake” and on “Nero”, “The city burns/This is what we deserve/Life is a waste on the living.” Now this isn’t the say this is a DSBM album. It is a black metal album that touches on suicide. If you are expecting Xasthur or Thy Light, you will be disappointed, though thinking Shining/Leviathan will get you closer.

The album isn’t without some weaknesses, we could at times do with less vocal and let instrumentals breathe, and the riffing may take from too many other genres for some purists, the suicide stuff is without subtlety bordering on edgelordy, and the outro track is superfluous. However those are nits being picked from what is truly a surprising and enjoyable self-released album by some random person with a DAW and an internet connection.