Nargaroth
Amarok

I must admit that I was quite undecided whether or not to write this review.
The first reason is that not everyone knows and at least appreciates the work and concept carried forward for years by this one-man-band led by the German Rudolf Kanwulf, while the second reason lies in the fact that the album in question is a collection of old remastered material with only two unreleased tracks. But let's go in order.

The Nargaroth project saw the light in 1991 with the very raw demo “Orke,” in 1993 it was the turn of the excellent “Herbstleyd.” After 7 years of silence, Our Man published the album in question. Nargaroth's musical proposal consists of depressive melodic black metal with references to Burzum, but in this case, we are not faced with yet another clone.

This CD consists of 6 tracks, the first is titled “Herbstleyd” lasting almost 9 minutes; this version is definitely better than the one on the promo, as it makes skillful use of keyboards at the beginning, giving the piece greater depth and expressiveness. The atmosphere is dreamy and airy, and then it intensifies in the 4 subsequent tempo changes where Rudolf demonstrates his ability to hurt with a violent and massive blast-beat, distorted and scratching guitar riffs, and above all, with his very acidic voice that at times tries to imitate Count Grishnack but results in a ghostly and suffering scream. The second track is “Black Spell of Destruction” by Burzum, where Nargaroth tries to pay tribute but I must admit with poor results. This cover is played a semitone lower, and the voice is lousy, weak, and disturbing. After this decidedly unsuccessful episode, it's the turn of “Shall We Begin,” practically an anthem to black metal: two guitar riffs but played as God commands (oops, pardon) as Satan commands, with a sudden tempo change into an incessant blast-beat and this time a more complex and whirling riff. The decidedly ignorant text quotes: “Black metal is the art and weapon in my hand, that never fall asleep ‘till every man is killed” and then a series of “Black metal rules!!!”.

My favorite, however, is the next "Into The Void." Let's start by saying that in this track the tones change significantly. Here we are in the presence of a true and long funeral march with saturated and cyclical guitar riffs and deep and very slow ritualistic toms that truly convey infinite sadness but at the same time a great sense of freedom. The text in this case is more engaged. Our Man found himself wandering through a dark forest when suddenly a shining flame lit up the night sky, granting him the gift of eternal life but at the same time, from that day, those close to him began to fall ill and die, creating a void around him and only he knew the reason… A truly evocative piece enriched by a very acidic and incomprehensible scream. The fifth track is the unreleased and experimental "Amarok-Zorn des Lammes part II." The song begins with slow and melancholic keyboard arpeggios with a very soft and muffled sound, and the song explodes after 4 minutes with all its vehemence and freedom, a long and complex harmonic progression where the contrast between joy and pain plays a dominant role, only at the end does pain triumph over everything, represented by darker and more melancholic guitar harmonic turns. The text is completely in German and the total duration of this track is 23 minutes, sustained by an initial blast-beat and then in a much slower rhythmic succession. The last track is the unreleased “As the Stars took me with ‘em” and it is the most experimental track on the CD, woven with distorted minimalistic and long guitar arpeggios capable of creating a sort of sonic sludge. The drums are not present, but there is a scream that this time manages to compete with the Count if not even surpass him, in fact, the song is sung with such suffering, pain, and despair capable of instilling a strong sense of heartbreaking anguish in the listener. The text is also distressed and talks about the process of abandoning earthly life to then merge with the astral matter, a process obviously slow and painful assigned only to a few chosen ones, the piece ends with a long and dark minimal black ambient in full Nordvargr style. Again, the piece extends for a good 20 long minutes.

This is Nargaroth, this is his proposal and this is his attitude, and to fully appreciate it requires a great open-mindedness, indeed I recommend this album to those who always demand something more from black metal…

Giorgio “GrigioO” Finiello