Isengard
Vinterskugge

Among the various projects of Leif Gylve Nagell, better known as Fenriz, drummer of Darkthrone, the one-man-band Isengard stands out, in which he pours his creativity at all levels, from the raw and still hybrid death of the early demos to the more mature one, which he decided to bring out from his main band to avoid contaminating its sound, now much more classic and stereotyped than his new creations.

"Vinterskugge" (Winter Shadows) is a monumental project, extremely heterogeneous, which possesses its indelible charm in the fact that it is one of the few releases that, although not a true compilation, span the entire career of an artist, offering a portrait that is as truthful, complete, and always fresh.

The album is divided into three sections, corresponding to three chronologically different moments regarding creation and recording. The first chapter of the album, "Vandreren" (The Wanderer), is the most recent chapter in Fenriz’s personal history and contains those more typically Isengard sounds, the same sounds that will be revisited, for better or worse, by the subsequent "Høstmørke": it is a black metal still quite unripe, but already widely contaminated by more or less evocative, pompous sounds, almost Viking in nature at some points. A perfect example might be the first song, "Vinterskugge": Fenriz's clean vocals dominate the track which, while not highly professional, is very personal and convincing, from the ultradirect high notes to the rapid vocal phrasing, which intertwines perfectly with an extremely fast and fluid rhythm-melodic line, despite not consisting of particularly studied riffs or designs.

It continues with "Gjennom Skogen Til Blaafjellene" (Through the Forest to the Blue Mountains), a sort of acoustic piece played with a rather distorted electric guitar: the strange sensation derived from it is a moment of stasis, and atmospheric preparation to descend into a darker sequence of the album, as evidenced in the final seconds, in a deeply engaging scale, created by the partial overlay of the guitar with a horn, an instrument widely used by Fenriz in his most evocative and emotional suites. The following "Ut I Vannets Dyp Hvor Mørket Hviler" accelerates once more, to a level higher than that of the opener, more typically black; the composition offers rapid vibrant explosions of an extremely rough scream, overlaid on the same guitar line, all seasoned with an obsessive and vague reverb aimed at creating a cold and gloomy atmosphere, typically Nordic and wintery. Another semi-acoustic interlude constitutes "Dommedagssalme" (Judgment Day Psalm), in which Nagell's clean vocals are even more rough, yet at the same time, the slow acoustic-black score enhances an unsettling atmosphere that begins to reveal a nearly palpable cold from the ethereal and sulfurous drifting of the notes in the air.

The masterpiece "In The Halls And Chambers Of Stardust The Crystallic Heavens Open" features icily clear synth chimes based on a harpsichord that captivates the listener, like a bell that manages to create a funeral lullaby with the striking of a golden clapper on a glass surface... The notes float lightly in another world, that completely unreal and ethereal paradise described by the title. It is most likely one of the most beautiful instrumental pieces ever written, and it is nearly regretful to leave such delicate and penetrating sounds (yes, penetrating!) for a new black attack: this is "Fanden Lokker Til Stupend - Nytrad", led by a rhythm actually punctuated by almost rock-folk contaminations, which however do not estrange the dark air of the whole; it is nonetheless a filler interlude, waiting for the masterpiece "Naglfar", with which the "Vandreren" section closes. A pompous, vibrant song that rides black-viking passages with the same agility Fenriz seems to ride the waves with, while his Nail Ship calls the other warriors to gather, preparing for battle on the first shoals: overall, excellent interpenetration of the two genres, but a somewhat closed and self-citing tone, which causes part of the atmospheric depth of the past six tracks to be lost. On the other hand, some excellent, truly touching ideas, almost touching Einherjer’s "Aurora Borealis," remain, and this cannot leave one anything but once again in awe when faced with such majestic compositional variety.

The second chapter, "Spectres Over Gorgoroth," is a collection resurrected from a 1989 demo, and consists of sounds more oriented towards a brutal and foggy death, the same death that at the time was making the mothership Darkthrone's fortune. Certainly standing out are "Thy Cruesome Death", a fast and brutally disorderly track as it should be, and the slower "Deathcult", with the deep and powerful imprint of Darkthrone's "Soulside Journey." Closer to "Vandreren" is "Horizons", a promo from the early ‘90s, where the spontaneity of a primordial black stands out, at times folkish, at times still laden with less evocative but more brutal influences belonging more to death. Shining with its own light in this darkened firmament is "The Fog", an acrid traverse of a caustic and satanic scream over an oppressive and almost materially heavy backdrop, in which a guitar repeatedly brushes against death and doom, and an obsessive, darkening bass intertwine. Sudden accelerations make one regret that Fenriz, over time, abandoned the project.

On the line of "Naglfar" appears "Storm Of Evil", which makes its majestic pomp, excellently reinforced by a thin and cutting wind, an anthem to the north and its unspoiled lands, still far from a civilization that will lead to a flattening, if not complete, at least devastating, of the culture in places capable, through music and literature, of evoking marches, battles, ceremonies, pagan rituals, and immortal traditions. Slow requiem "Bergtrollets Gravferd" (Burial of the Mountain Troll), where, in some moments, the atmospheres of Edvard Grieg seem to come alive, plunging into the last masterpiece, "Our Lord Will Come," a primordial black with unrefined structures, but with a line easily identifiable by its frank and nebulous character; pity that this is the song in which the inadequacy of Nagell's still not very seasoned vocal cords is most evident...

In conclusion, a triple album whose value, if not wholly in its musical content, lies in its historical presence, and in the knowledge, which should be obligatory, of a branch of black metal often underestimated and forgotten even by the purists of the genre themselves.