Isengard
Vinterskugge

For those who passionately follow black metal as if it were almost a religion, the name of this one-man band might not say much; but if I say Fenriz, what do you gather?

...(I'm waiting)...

Okay, I'll tell you: Fenriz is none other than the drummer of a famous black metal band, namely Darkthrone (I hope I spelled that correctly).

Isengard is his solo project, now shelved, with which the drummer released two works; the first is "Vinterskugge" dated 1994, and the second "Hostmorke" dated 1995.

After this brief introduction, talking to you about the cd is not simple because, despite it being a collection of demos, the work is divided into three chapters: "Vandreren" (1993), "Spectres over Gorgoroth" (1989), "Horizon" (1991).

But I personally like to divide this "Vinterskugge" into two large sections: the first and third chapters as black metal that lets itself be influenced by elements like ambient, and the second chapter as the chapter that collects episodes of pure black metal.

I don't want to leave any track unmentioned but to avoid being more verbose than I already am, I would like to point out, chapter by chapter, those songs that can be taken to represent Fenriz's work.

Chapter 1: "Vinterskugge" where the vocals, unlike classic black, are cleaner (personally, I don't find it exceptional) and where the keyboards towards the end add a touch of ambient, "Gjennom skogen til blaafjellene" where a distorted arpeggio is obsessively repeated and gradually fades out to then be slowly picked up again, and in this track, the ambient elements are continuously repeated (inevitably my memory goes to recall that "Rundgang um die transzendentale Säule der Singularit"), Ut i vannets dyp hvor mørket hviler" and we reach the first track of pure black metal where the comparison with the early Darkthrone (those who played on the Thulcandra demo is inevitable), "In the halls and chambers of stardust the crystallic heavens open" which opens with the sound of a harpsichord (if I’m not mistaken) always accompanied by ambient elements that add something satisfying, "Fanden lokker til stupet (nytrad)" a solemn black'n'roll with the addition of the flute! Making everything more pagan; and for the record, if I hadn't heard it myself, I would never have believed it, the first episode closes with a burp, and don't make faces because that's exactly how it is.

Chapter 2: "Thy gruesome" classic lo-fi production and voice ranging from black to death, "Dark lord of Gorgoroth" is distressing in its slow progression to the conclusion.

Chapter 3: "Storm of evil" resumes the clean singing that Fenriz wants to teach us that to sing black metal you don't have to destroy your vocal cords?, "Bergtrollets gravferd" and here if I may, I would talk about dark ambient where through the keyboards a dark melody is played, cold as the earth it comes from, and alongside all this a sound that I personally cannot define has been mixed in, but to give you an idea, think of the bass drum sound that the trolls play in the third episode of The Lord of the Rings.

To conclude, I can only feel saddened for the end of this project by one of the most important exponents of black metal, it's enough to say that he played on an album like "A blaze in the northern sky"... it says it all.

For the record, Fenriz wanted to personally pay tribute to black metal by playing on a cd he titled: "Fenriz presents: best of old skool black metal"; among the songs, I mention "The freezing moon" by Mayhem, "Ea, lord of the depths" by Burzum, "Warhead" by Venom, and "Dies irae" by Bathory.