{"id":22651,"date":"2014-12-20T00:01:13","date_gmt":"2014-12-20T00:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=22651"},"modified":"2014-12-20T13:28:30","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T13:28:30","slug":"album-review-vardan-verses-from-ancient-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-vardan-verses-from-ancient-times\/","title":{"rendered":"VARDAN – Verses From Ancient Times (2015) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

VARDAN
Verses From Ancient Times<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMoribund (2015)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bloody hell, it seems like only five minutes ago I was reviewing Vardan\u2019s 2014 effort Enjoy Of Deep Sadness<\/em><\/a> which for all of its haunting cacophony fell well short of being one of the year\u2019s finest black metal releases.<\/p>\n

And so we come to another entry into the rather impressive discography of this Italian wizard of sorrow. The press release has this new opus down as being the 22nd from multi-instrumentalist Mr Vardan, although I only knew of about eight previous to this, but maybe I\u2019ve just lost count within this mightily prolific force of nature. In fact, this guy is so productive that in 2014 he churned out three full-length releases, so goodness knows just how many more he\u2019s going to spew out in 2015… but I\u2019ll try to take one release at a time.<\/p>\n

Verses From Ancient Times<\/em> offers up four epic tunes; no surprise that they appear as \u2018I\u2019, \u2018II\u2019, \u2018III\u2019 and \u2018IV\u2019, and it\u2019s also no shock that once again we\u2019re treated to that same sturdy, and at times infectious yet abysmal strain of the grim. Vardan has mastered the art of making his music sound as if it\u2019s been constructed in some well-hidden lair where the guitars have since been coated in layers of dust and his own vocal chords have been laced by cob-webs and other \u201cthings\u201d of the night. It\u2019s standard black metal I guess, but black metal very much in that primitive frame of mind where the tracks fluctuate between faster passages of despair and slower, menacing slabs of grey grit.<\/p>\n

Of course, because the songs are so long (the longest clocks in at over 11 minutes) Vardan has enough room for manoeuvre, casting his net far and wide and dredging up all those finest ingredients which make raw black metal so intimidating and yet accessible. We get those blazing bursts of abrasive speed which complement his vocal barks perfectly, and within these ashen mires we can find some archetype black metal melodies \u2013 \u2018II\u2019 showcases that thorny vocal scratch mixed with pacier abysmal gleams supplied by that racing barbed guitar and tinny drum haste.<\/p>\n

But with this sort of stuff I\u2019ve always preferred the menace of slowness and there are some excellent moments on this opus where grim and melody come together to form an impenetrable barrier of melancholic traditional black metal groove. My favourite examples are four minutes into the opening track where the drum kicks in like a truly malevolent monster trudging through the wastes, while on \u2018III\u2019 the initial gust of evil makes way for a majestic trudge of echoing ambience and again trundling percussion. Indeed, of all the tracks \u2018III\u2019 \u2013 although short at under six minutes \u2013 seems to offer so much more, and just emanates the true Gothic yet primal splendour we\u2019ve become accustomed to with traditional black metal.<\/p>\n

While there are a few predictable moments with Vardan\u2019s latest foray, I enjoyed the record immensely and see it as a major improvement on his previous bout of glumness. Vardan will always be that grief-stricken individual who is able to transfer his emotions to record, but this time round I appreciate them more.<\/p>\n

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

VARDANVerses From Ancient Times Moribund (2015)Rating: 7.5\/10 Bloody hell, it seems like only five minutes ago I was reviewing Vardan\u2019s 2014 effort Enjoy Of Deep Sadness which for all of its haunting cacophony fell well short of being one of the year\u2019s finest black metal releases. And so we come to another entry into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1290],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vardan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22651","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=22651"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22660,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22651\/revisions\/22660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}