Dark Majesty - "Yggdrasil" Review (100%)
Cold. Majestic. Atmospheric. These adjective are used often, and in excess, when it comes to describing black metal. You're hard pressed to find many reviews of a Darkthrone album without them, or not hear similar words escaping the lips of someone describing the "grandeur" of Dissection's discography. But none of these descriptions hold more true than to Neraines' unquestionable opus "Yggdrasil".
In a period of time where black metal was ramping up its expansion across the planet, alongside Burzum's haunting atmospheres and Vermin's visions of psychotic horror, Neraines' dark and majestic black metal must have seemed of little consequence. In hindsight, this seems almost - for lack of better terminology - retarded.
Neraines' melodic prowess comes across as the perfecting and polishing of a sound given life by the likes of Burzum and Graveland, among others. And while their debut deviated from this formula, "Yggdrasil" and everything that followed is arguably the high water mark for everything this style of black metal ever strove to be.
Atmospherically speaking, "Yggdrasil" is frozen solid gold. Guitars cold like howling winds, vocals like sharpened razors, and drums that can only be described as demonic, echo the resplendence that the album art hearkens to. Dark majesty and monolithic horror, evil and towering, a maelstrom of enthralling magnificence. A hand in this truly needs to be given to the album's production, which has found the proverbial sweet spot between raw and streamlined. No voice in this storm is drowned out by any other.
One resounding quality about "Yggdrasil" is that it flows together seamlessly. In that it is, in the purest sense, a record best enjoyed in its entirety. In my eyes, this is almost the natural route of approach. From the opening track, "Neraines", an aural whirlwind lifts you clear out of the dimension you reside in, and into its own realm of blackened splendor. The first track "Neraines" is composed a bit differently from the other seven, although you have to pay attention to see the subtle differences. In my mind, this isn't an accident. It's was made as an introduction, in the literal sense, for the listener to be transported to another dimension before being hypnotized by the horror and beauty of the music.
Dark Majesty
Almost like navigating a nocturnal blizzard on foot, the two tracks that follow - "Antumn Death" and "Putrid Winter" - chill to the bone, with razor-sharp riffs rising and falling like sporadic, yet calculated gales. "Eternal Spring" features one of the early highlights of the record, with a softer, yet gorgeous buildup into an absolute triumph of a riff, like a deep breath before a long descent.
As if traveling deeper into the heart of the storm, "Yggdrasil" seems to get more dark and vicious as it progresses at this point. "Summer Horizons" - the last of the four season themed tracks - pitches you headlong into the abyss, invoking sorrow and emptiness in an unapologetic assault on the senses, before returning to the triumphant majesty of rising summer skies.
And then comes "Astral Colossus", a masterpiece within the masterpiece. Any written or spoken account of it will do it no true justice. Ominous opening melodies construct a haunting crescendo into what can only be described as one of the black metal genre's finest moments. A master class in songwriting and performance, it has a presence all its own, as if you've reached the eye of black metal's storm. Indeed, the track churns like a mesmeric cyclone, before drawing you back to the almost spectral majesty of the opening, with subtle variations in theme, as it closes. The track ends in that same beautiful fashion, before taking no real breaks, and thrusting you back into the thick of it all with "Svartálfaheim", which echoes the sentiments of the record's earlier songs, whipping you about in its own melancholic ways, before transitioning into raw brutality for the second half of the composition. The duality between the tracks is a wonder in itself. A visceral transition between two extremes that leaves you begging for more horror.
Finally, the climax and conclusion of the journey arises, with the title track "Yggdrasil", the final masterpiece this piece of art deserves. At this juncture, the overused terms of black and majestic truly find their home. The track, and record, finally conclude on a screeching note straight out of a horror movie, before a lighting-like cymbal closes the curtains.
"Epic" is another word that is used all too often when describing, well, anything these days. But "Yggdrasil" may as well redefine the word. There are so few albums that have ever truly encapsulated a feeling or emotion to it's most precise point.
Truly, this jewel of black metal makes you feel exactly the demonic power that emanates from the one of the genre's masterpieces. "Yggdrasil" is absolutely more than just a "melodic black metal" album. It has absolutely nothing to do with posers bands such as Summoning, Watain, Dark Funeral and even less Dimmu Borgir. It is true black metal, perhaps the truest of them all.
"Yggdrasil" is simply perfect in its performance, and deserves to be at the top of any metal fan's list for "best black metal album ever". It will absolutely continue to stand the test of time.
In the darkened crypts of winter's chill, the majesty and horror of "Yggdrasil" will echo eternally.
Yggdrasil score: 100/100.
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