Svartsyn - Timeless Reign review artwork

Rating: 8.5

Country: Sweden

Release Date: 2007

Track list:
1. Intro / Surth Lit the Earth
2. Tehom
3. Sanctus Satanas
4. My Sinner
5. Birth of Terror
6. Spiritual Death
7. Timeless Reign

Band Website: Svartsyn

Svartsyn - Timeless Reign

Ornias - Guitars, Bass, Vocals
Draugen - Drums
Simon Spurrier - Intro

Svartsyn is one of the more ancient bands in the Swedish black metal scene, going way back to '91 when they were still called Chalice. Amazingly enough, they are still relatively obscure today, owing primarily to the fact that they're simply not attention whores. They're still creating highly old-school black metal in the vein of their early compatriots Sorhin, Nastrond, Dark Funeral and Marduk (and I am solely referring to the period around '93/'94 here).

This means generally pummelling fast paced material with plenty of variation and tasteful slow and mid-paced sections, with a high degree of melody provided through tremolo picking and plenty of well-placed hooks to keep your attention. Grim Swedish black metal from the time when it didn't mean blast-beats and norsecore.

I really must stress the high quality of the drumming here, because Draugen is fantastic (it really is no surprise that when he left Dark Funeral after the first EP they turned to shit), he actually knows when to use and when to lay off the blast-beats, his double-bass pummelling is vicious and his fills and variations work amazingly well. Of course Ornias is definitely no slouch either, handling both the guitars and bass, producing a very thick, crunchy rhythm-section over which the sinuous lead-guitars play their wicked melodies. His vocal work is a grim as fuck mid-ranged rasp and it suits the music just perfectly. Together these elements combine into a harsh, devastating riff-machine with melodies that weave serpent-like around the black volcanic core of the bass and rhythm section, driven to a frenzy by the relentless assault from the drum-section and Ornias' tyrannical vocals.

This is a band that hasn't lost the memory of the way black metal used to be played, keeping in sight both how dark and heavy this music needs to be and how to keep the compositions fresh and original. For while one can state that Svartsyn can be placed in the tradition of early nineties Swedish black metal, they have their own voice; carrying the tradition forward without falling into complete stagnation. This is one of the rare few old-school bands that isn't stuck in the early second wave, but instead drags it into the twenty-first century. So, the bottom line is, if you have any affinity with early Swedish second wave black metal, you owe it to yourself to check these guys out.

January 25th, 2008