Svartelder – Trenches

Svartelder (Norwegian for ‘Black/Dark Elder’) is a Norwegian Second Wave Black Metal trio originally conceived at the tail end of the original Second Wave, back in 2005. Despite putting nothing (that I could dig up at any rate) onto any physical media, the band was nevertheless active, presumably as a live act for half a decade before going into a relatively short hiatus that was to last up until 2015 – After which, the devil himself seems to have dug his claws into the band, and a slew of releases were soon to follow: One Demo, one EP and three Full-lengths to be exact. And it is the latest of these, Trenches, that I was planning to delve into on this fine northern night. 

Musically, Svartelder delivers exactly what they promised on the proverbial tin: Old-fashioned, highly aggressive and repentless Black Metal, as seen delivered by the likes of Tulus, modern-era Mayhem and Batoushka. At no point do the band stray too far from their roots, even keeping alive the tradition of taking on monikers for their stage performances (in this case specifically Doedsadmiral, Tjalve and Spektre) as well as the strong presence of Punk-influences that this particular genre has always had. The end result is, unsurprisingly, a band that is no doubt most perfectly suited for stage performances where their unceasing wrath and energy is no doubt as contagious among their listeners as most strains of disease claim to be. 

Genuinely, in my case I had to give the album quite a few spins beyond the first before I could immerse myself enough into it to properly admire it due to my mind immediately jumping back a few decades to the first time I saw Ghaal perform with Gorgoroth due to their performance – The sheer energy is what I remember the most, with the underlying themes of death, satanism and Norwegian culture only serving to add to the experience. 

All in all, the seven tracks (and thirty-eight minutes) present on Trenches are among the best examples I have seen in recent times of keeping this particular branch of the genre alive – No doubt due in no small part to the massive amount of experience the three band members have inbetween themselves among similar acts that will go unmentioned here due to instead having this slightly obscure band being judged by its own merit. 

https://www.facebook.com/SvartelderOfficial/