Origin: Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪
Genre: Melodic Black Metal
The clandestine world of occult BM is a mysterious one, but more than anything else, it’s where the truest black metal can be found. Actual practitioners of black magick and followers of the Luciferian, Satanic, Draconian and Qliphotic paths creating black metal to enlighten, enrage, dare and to disrupt cosmic order. The members of Sweden’s Grafvitnir are versed in ritual and masters of the blackened arts. And judging by their no compromise discography full of LP’s with one demo: no EP’s, no singles, no comps or splits, it’s plain to see that passion is afire and that Graftvitnir reserve only the finest of their craft for the hordes and for Lucifer the Father.
Hailing from Stockholm, Grafvitnir naturally offer a melodic style of black metal that harkens back to the Dissection days, but driven by modern day outlaw Watain-like levels of energy and unpredictability. On June 30, Grafvitnir will release their ninth LP, “Into the Outer Wilderness”, under the mark of Shadow Records and in conspiracy with Regain Records.
With “Into the Outer Wilderness”, Grafvitnir take you on what will seem to the novice like a labyrinthine journey through bewildering musical landscapes, but for those of us who are familiar with Luciferian black metal, we understand that predictable mid-tempo BM may have been Jon Nödtveidt’s thing and that Dissection’s catalog is no doubt a fine one, but it never properly encapsulated the majesty, power and complexity of Lucifer – the highest throne of The Eleven. It’s bands like Greece’s Thy Darkened Shade, Canada’s Gevurah and fellow Swedes – the legendary-in-their-own-right, Ofermod, who I feel have really been raising the flag for The Light Bringer since Dissection’s disbandment. Music to match his energy and intangibility. The title-cut, “Venomous Incantations” and “Lycanthropic Litany” – equally portioned at about 5:30, driven by kindred melodic swells and accented by these Mayhem-heralding, almost Icelandic in their intricacy, scales that snake their way through and around each track’s riff/rhythmic current. Melodic black metal at its core but definitely not your typical Sacramentum or Naglfar type of record.
Expect a level of intensity and sonic energy unlike what you would ever experience in the mainstream and rarely even emulated in the underground. This is more than art, this is spiritual expression set to music and words that hold ancient connotations – incantations and formulas linked to Lucifer – the deity. But also superlatives like the Tsjuder worshipping riff in “Through the Witchcraft Door” and the blast-beats/paradiddles in “Seekers of Fire” that just seem to hit with a little more texture and finesse. I’m not a huge admirer of this album’s all-too-balanced feel when it comes to track runtime. With each track on the album – aside from the intro and “Urtidens Becksvarta Arv” – running at 4:00 to 5:30, anticipation eventually turns into boredom. Just not enough to sway my mostly positive thoughts about “Into the Outer Wilderness”. True black metal! There’s that phrase again. I’ll drive it in there until you get it and understand how important it is. Grafvitnir and BM outfits of the like – esoterically-driven spiritualists – represent everything that makes black metal the most taboo yet undeniably seductive genre of music that has ever existed. A movement that began as an ode to Devil worship during the second wave is now a conduit for enlightened spiritual currents. Damn good black metal, too.
8/10
Experience “Into the Outer Wilderness” by Grafvitnir right here as premiered by Black Metal Promotion:
~Jeger
