Svederna – Härd

Svederna is a Swedish Black Metal quartet – Specifically one that saw the light of day nine years ago, in the year 2012. Since then, the band has released a grand total of five releases, one of these a Split with Øde Vinter, another a Live Album and the remaining three Full-length releases. It is the latter of these that is to be the subject of todays written rant, their newest release in particular. And, as written above, it carries the title Härd – By the band translated into ‘Hearth’, symbolizing the sacred place where everything melts and only the truth remains. No doubt a reference to their lyrical focus, which seems to be heavily anti-establishment.

Said anti-establishment is on full display all throughout all ten tracks of the record, with the second song “Folkets Blod” (roughly translating into ‘Blood Of The People’) being a very apt description about how the northern countries (and no doubt Sweden in particular) has changed over the years.

The choice to perform the album in its entirety in their native Swedish compliments their overall sound as a band very well – There is no doubt that Svederna is a product of its geographic location, seeing as how the gruff, aggressive staccato-notes present throughout the lyrics are likewise present on every instrument played to lay the musical foundation of the statements being made. It merges together perfectly into an, shall we say, evolved version of the Second Wave Black Metal musical style that put their neighbours on the map roughly thirty years ago.

All in all, Svederna has created a nice addition to the Black Metal stage as a hole – They have taken all the powerful aspects of the genre they spawned from and brought it up to date, by cleaning out the channels and mixing and giving it their own spin by keeping it in their native tongue. A very good effort, resulting in a decent album. That being said, there is no doubt in my mind that Svederna as a band is aimed towards old-school Black Metal fans, as Härd offers nothing new to the table. Neither of this is a bad thing, but still relevant to mention here in my book. Make sure to pick it up if you are looking for roughly fifty minutes of traditional Black Metal, but without the massively distorted effects often found by the founders of the genre.

Recommended for fans of The Ancients Rebirth as well as Grafvitnir.

https://www.facebook.com/svederna.garde

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unbxden9xGw