Bilskirnir + Finsterwald
Totenheer / Rammbock

Reviewing a split is never an easy job, as it involves dealing with realities that sometimes present marked differences between each other, often stylistically but sometimes technically as well.

It's a rather unpleasant topic to address, but I believe that this disc, lasting about forty minutes, is indeed an example. It confronts "Totenheer," the work of Bilskirnir consisting of four tracks, with the three songs of "Rammbock," the effort of the emerging band Finsterwald, clearly inferior both in ideas and technique to their split companions. The fact is that their presence on this record is probably due more to friendship with Widar, the mastermind and sole member of Bilskirnir, than to any particular merits of their own. With this, I do not mean to bash them; the band is quite young, and they are aware of their limitations, as noted in the booklet where, besides thanking their mentor Widar, they apologize for the very poor quality of the material recorded even in a direct take!

The whole thing is opened by the German Bilskirnir, showcasing in the majestic title track, an inspired and confident riffing in its steady rhythm, accompanied by a simple yet effective drum. The voice is rich, not weak as genre singers often choose, and light effects – especially a slight reverb – contribute to making it even more captivating; the song flows smoothly for five minutes, then stops to grant the listener two minutes of very soothing acoustic guitar, whose arpeggios lead the ear to the following “Asa-Tyr.”
It begins with the lament of a sick guitar, the sound of which absolutely recalls the more depressive works of Count Grishnack – to be precise, the sound is very similar to what is reproduced in “Dunkelheit”; the voice is no less intense, the despair is almost palpable while a second overdubbed guitar marks the time with majestic chords of exasperating slowness. It concludes slowly, fading away completely and giving way to a cover extracted precisely from Burzum's “Filosofem”: “Gebrechlichkeit” begins its morbid, unstoppable crawl towards the listener's brain. The song is wonderful, and Bilskirnir only do it justice by faithfully reproducing it, demonstrating a total devotion to the cause.

Concluding their efforts is “Ausklang,” thirty seconds of pure relaxation, before the attack of Finsterwald. It is, in fact, nothing more than an acoustic outro, a simple but beautiful classical guitar arpeggio, somewhat reminiscent of medieval rhythms.

It's now the turn of Finsterwald, also from Germany, currently a duo but represented by four members on this split, among whom are the already mentioned Widar and Fafnir, one of the founders along with Nidhoggr and Braswelgr, who would later leave the band due to substance abuse issues.
After the sounds of a battle, the very fast riff of “Rammbock” begins, a song in full raw black metal style with an extremely tight drum and really dirty sounds. Too dirty, and thus the song quickly devolves into a jumbled mess of sounds, where the only distinguishable element, apart from the drums, is a fast, very high-pitched guitar riff. The voice is rarely audible and doesn't impress me much. Unfortunately, things do not improve with the subsequent “Die Reise des Tyrannen in das transzendetale Reich der Finsternis,” a very slow and rather boring song; the ideas are there, but in my opinion still a bit too confused, and certainly, a track-by-track recording would have made everything much more enjoyable.

Closing the disc is a cover of Graveland's "Through the Occult Veil," rendered somewhat confusingly but acceptably and otherwise not much unlike the original. Recommended only for genre fanatics.

In conclusion, it can be said that the rating you see above is a sort of average of the two groups because, to be honest, I would have given a solid four to Bilskirnir and only two stars to the younger Finsterwald, anticipating better work from them. Nonetheless an interesting disc, if for nothing else, for the testimony of two genuine bands who love to play pure black metal without too much embellishment.