{"id":12789,"date":"2013-05-28T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-28T00:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=12789"},"modified":"2013-06-28T17:36:06","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T17:36:06","slug":"album-review-svartsyn-black-testament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-svartsyn-black-testament\/","title":{"rendered":"SVARTSYN – Black Testament (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SVARTSYN
Black Testament<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nAgonia (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m amazed at the amount of one-man bands within the black metal genre. There really are some clever guys out there roaming the frosty forests in search of that elusive and remote sound.<\/p>\n

Svartysn are no exception, the band being the brainchild of Ornias who since the foetid days of 1993 has been plying his unholy trade. Black Testament<\/em> is the eighth full-length platter of impurity from this talented musician who hails from Sweden, and when I tell you that the name Svartysn means \u201cpessimism\u201d in his native tongue, it\u2019s no surprise that this eight-track affair (including the 30-second intro) is a rather nasty affair.<\/p>\n

Ornias is a multi-instrumentalist who likes to indulge in cold and frosty riffs that bring to mind the vintage days of Norwegian legendary black metal band Immortal, combined with the rasping vocals of Venom\u2019s Cronos. Although this is a rather well-produced record, the album isn\u2019t swamped by nifty dynamics or engulfed in symphonics. Instead, it rages hard from the scathing guitars and rapid-fire drumming, which I believe is the result of Ornias employing a session drummer.<\/p>\n

During the early to mid 90s there was far too much black metal doing the rounds and a majority of bands did, sadly, all sound the same. But Svartysn is able to shift between structures and pace, combining grating melody \u2013 such as on opener \u2018Revelation In The Waters\u2019 \u2013 with a rusty battering ram quality, like on \u2018Venom Of The Underworld\u2019, which comes complete with deathly gurgles and another accessible riff that harkens back to the German style of thrash from the 1980s.<\/p>\n

I have to admit however that Ornias, for all his talents, is not as bleak musically as I originally imagined him to be. That\u2019s not to say that this is middle of the road black metal, but when you hear a track such as \u2018Demoness With Seven Names\u2019 you are merely transported back to the mid 90s style of direct, and slightly bland black metal, because although the riffs are sharp and the percussion hard-hitting, there\u2019s not enough going on to distance it from countless other black metal tracks.<\/p>\n

Even so, the obscure basement riff of \u2018Carving A Temple\u2019 is a carnal delight, but \u2018Eyes Of The Earth\u2019, \u2018Rising Beast\u2019 and the closing title track are very much more of the same with those gratingly cold guitars and repetitive drums.<\/p>\n

I guess for some, this style of almost boring metal could be considered as achieving its objective to numb the soul, but almost 15 years ago bands like this were two a penny, all intent on churning out rather simplistic and slightly regressive hate. Fair play to Ornias for sticking to his trusty gun, but I much prefer labelmates Pest and their chesty brand of black \u2019n\u2019 roll, because after a few spins Svartysn is the musical equivalent to swallowing razor-blades.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SVARTSYNBlack Testament Agonia (2013)Rating: 6\/10 I\u2019m amazed at the amount of one-man bands within the black metal genre. There really are some clever guys out there roaming the frosty forests in search of that elusive and remote sound. Svartysn are no exception, the band being the brainchild of Ornias who since the foetid days of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,625],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-svartsyn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12789"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12794,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12789\/revisions\/12794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}