Dystert Vilse

What is the essence of black metal? Ever since Burzum and Darkthrone stripped standard metal composition from all that they saw as extraneous holdovers from old rock and roll, like solos and chorus sections, to reach a pure and ideal form of black metal, there has been a pervasive minimalist movement that emphasizes the less-is-more approach taken by these two pioneers. Swedish one man act Underjordiska has his own view on the pure sound of black metal and the result is unique. Instead of dialing back on compositional techniques, Underjordiska chose to remove the entire rhythm section. That's right, no bass and, more strikingly, no drums! 

Instead there are about three or four guitar layers droning along in all their discordant, semi-melodic splendor. Taking a page from Burzum's Filosofem, Ulver's Nattens Madrigal and the French Black Legions, while also sharing structural similarities with Blut aus Nord's Work Which Transforms God, Drudhk's Forgotten Legends and more recent acts like Verdunkeln and Walknut, the absence of standard rhythm really sets Underjordiska apart from its peers in spite of the many similarities in guitar playing. The only presence of percussion is in the form of cymbal hits to emphasize certain movements in the music and one brief part in the exact center of the album when, after an ominous build-up of seven minutes, the song "Herre och Tr?ll" suddenly explodes in a thumping beat as the guitars finish their discordant clash. 

While all of the above-mentioned bands and others have often severely deemphasized the drums and bass to near insignificance, the almost complete removal of them unencumbers the guitars so much that the multiple guitar layers are truly free to do their thing. Completely freed from any and all memories of a hard rock past, the black metal of Underjordiska moves completely into new territory that sits comfortably between neo-classical music, dark ambient and, perhaps surprisingly, folk music. As much as this is a step forward into territory metal has been moving into since its inception, this is also a home-coming of sorts to a time when music consisted of narrative movements and not daftly repeated verses and choruses. 

It's rather amazing how much momentum the music on offer here still has without any overt rhythmic instruments to speak of, solely due to the interplay of shifting guitar layers. Still, this is more music to sit still to with headphones on rather than the more active listening experience normal black metal usually offers. Exploring an avenue of black metal hardly, if ever, trod, Underjordiska shows that the carcass of black metal has plenty of unlife left in its withered corpse.