Sarke - Vorunah

In past reviews of Norwegian black metal albums, I’ve painted stark pictures of bitter winter landscapes as I’ve interpreted the music set before me. Frigid forested mountains caked with snow and ice, windswept hills and lands barren of most human life. The black metal mavens of Norway always seem to capture these environments better than most, creating this amazing imagery of desolation and want, which makes me think that their approach to the music is more than to follow the deer trails of those who came before them and more a lifestyle of shunning human existence. Steeped in the essence of the northern lands, multi-instrumentalist Sarke creates an overwhelming wave of earthy groove metal that mixes seamlessly with mesmerizing atmospheric passages, and vocalist Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone) adds the venom needed to propel this album into the ether. Vorunah is a spectacle to set your ears upon. Rabid. Monstrous. At times, overpowering and almighty, other times, majestic and sprawling. Ultimately addictive in its simplicity, Vorunah is the type of album that will make its way to the turntable without conscious effort.

As the opening track, “Primitive Killing” kicks in, the head will undoubtedly begin it’s up and down pattern, pushed along by a high octane tempo and dark, gritty guitar riff. Once the vocals part the wisps of smoke and Culto begins describing his knife of bone and rope for strangulation, it’s immediately apparent that these guys are hell bent on kicking our collective asses. Great riffs rain down like the leaves falling from the windblown trees, shifting with the tempo to create a greater sense of mood, and that break shortly after the two minute mark is brilliant in the way it creates dynamics and space. The beat practically disappears and the music grinds down to the slowest of slow grooves, hitting us with a quasi-Sabbath doom riff. As the guitars re-enter with their groove-centric riffage, take note of the subtle ambient flourishes in the background, sounding almost like a gong being struck to sound the battle charge. It’s a minute portion of the song, but damn! It creates this awesome feeling of tension and release.

As “Primitive Killing” fades out, it’s soon replaced by the droning guitar riffery of the title track. This song is truly brutal. Detuned and heavily distorted guitars power through the air, all to a mid tempo drum beat, overpowering the senses with its sheer weight. Pay close attention to the drum work as the song comes out of the first chorus. Sarke’s off pattern kilter with the drums follows the equally off kilter guitar passage. I get a sense of a bit of prog-rock with this tune despite the overbearing heft of the music, partially from the intricate guitar and drum work, but also from the sprawling keyboards creating an ethereal sense to the music. Culto’s vocals, again, spit out their venomous message of loathing towards the hanger’s-on crowd, snarled with menace, but never going the route of recent death metal trends to being incomprehensible. “Vorunah” is an instant classic. Just add water.

After being pummeled into pudding by the first three songs, Sarke take us on a more surreal journey across the darkened skies of the northern winter. “Frost Junkie” has a heavy ‘70’s rock vibe to it for the first half, somewhat spacey and airy, though rooted to the earth by a thick bass line. The guitars play sparse notes over the slowed down tempo, creating a great image of stumbling lost in the frozen wastelands on the Arctic. And then, the whole thing explodes with fire! The tempo increases just a tad, and the guitars come in with a fully distorted chugga-chugga attack that stomps the frozen bones that litter the wasteland into dust. Great dynamics! Mesmerizing with its atmospherics, it’s almost as if we’re all on some psychedelic trip, and then Sarke grab us by the ears and bellow at the top of the lungs, straight into our shuddering forms, effectively killing our buzz as we try to wipe the spittle from our faces. Yeah! Let’s listen to that one again!

As we flip over the record (yes, I picked up the vinyl edition of the album) and we hear the needle crackle across the open space between the first and second tracks, “Cult Ritual” rolls across our senses like some out of control manifestation of doom and darkness. The song opens with some atmospheric sound effects and the clean toned guitar who’s strings are softly plucked. The whole sensation is pretty creepy, and then the guitars go all crunchy on us and intermingle with an acoustic piano that’s softly played for texture. As the more ambient portions of the song fade away, the Culto led barrage of doom fueled metal grooves its way into our souls. So heavy, so unforgiving, and so unrelenting, Sarke power this epic tune into oblivion and beyond.

Vorunah is a fairly simplistic album in that the riffs aren’t these mindboggling affairs, but they’re unique enough to warrant repeated listens. Nor are the compositions so far out there that they’re not accessible, but the songs are not your average metal songs either. This album is as compelling and addictive as it is because of its simplicity as much as its individuality. Musician Sarke did a great job of capturing so many different moods and emotions, yet keeping the superfluous out of the mix. And tapping Nocturno Culto to take over the vocal duties is an understated move of brilliance. Everything works on this album. The musicianship, the performances, the songwriting . . . it all comes together to create a sound that’s heroin addictive, forcing me to unwittingly reach for it when there’s nothing else playing. C’mon, you know you want to join all of us Frost Junkies as we plod through knee deep patches of snow. We’ll wait for you to don your parkas, but not for too long. Rumor has it that there’s ice fishing to be done.

- Pope JTE

buy here: Vorunah