Bilskirnir
Atavismus des Glaubens

Bilskirnir was the home of Thor, a Germanic deity known even to the uninitiated for a thousand and one reasons. It was the name of his castle which, translated from Old Norse, would mean more or less "bright flash" or "flash of light." The legendary location known as Asgard, the collection of "halls" where the main deities of the central-northern European pantheon resided, also housed Truðheimr or "house of strength," where the abode of the red god stood, the tutelary deity of human beings, the tireless warrior who will kill the great serpent at the end of time…

After this brief but necessary introduction, I return to reviewing a musical project little known to the masses but deserving of the precious attention of those who love the extreme in music. Widar is the soul and sole body driving this entirely German proposal, the only photo circulating shows him among bare trees, as if by script, wearing a t-shirt of the eternal Burzum, a source of evident and absolute inspiration. This brand has actually been in circulation in the troubled Germanic underground circuit since the mid-90s, with many demos, EPs, and splits, contributions to compilations and various collaborations to its credit, and (unfortunately) only four albums… I say straight away and without reservations that all four are genuine pearls for those searching for the best pagan metal. The style marches on the paths of the aforementioned Count and the best Graveland, just to name a random group (including Pagan Front), and the one I've chosen is the second of the four. The atavism of faith is here to remind us of our roots within that Mother Earth, which is the guardian of the ancient cult, urging us not to forget the ancient religious and spiritual traditions, reminding us that the Sun is God but, as a famous German once said: "No tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell," and it is precisely from the depths of the Earth that Widar shouts his message, his scream is lacerating and obsessive, a slow and solemn howl that goes directly to the spirit of the ancestral wolf, which descends to rise and tear apart what seems now consolidated by History. The sound is rich in cadenced passages and gallops typical of the genre under examination, everything mixes and merges with the words our protagonist howls at us, and the result is terribly fascinating, aided by a raw, at times chaotic production, worthy of the best times of the Black Flame. Bilskirnir, after all, remains a "niche" project, one of those gems difficult (but not impossible) to find. Sure, today on the net you can hear everything and everything is listened to as easily as it is forgotten; the magic of buying an album, of searching for it to the point of exhaustion or "encountering" it by chance in one of those shops that those around 40 years old know well and have frequented, is lost forever… In any case, here we have the most sincere and brutal Pagan Black Metal of the best kind, Widar is an exceptional Berserkr who will know how to guide you through his way of seeing and feeling. If you wish, you will find exhilarating cues and all the feeling that this genre should never, ever forget to continue burning.