Beats and yelling: Vargrav

Dimension: DaemoniumOut 17th April on Werewolf Finland’s Vargrav return for another bout of outrageously dense symphonic black metal. Resembling Gnipahålan in their attempt to physically overwhelm the listener with impenetrable waves of guitar and synth led noise, layers that create the illusion of activity despite an axiomatic simplicity locatable at the foundational level. Vargrav remain compelling not in their capacity as a sonic throwback – which they very much are – but in their anachronistic attitude, a diamond of modernist sincerity in an otherwise irony strewn rough. There is no gloss of apathy, comedy, or pretence, no attempt to soften the presentation with subtlety, nuance, or the duality of meaning so often craved by a contemporary audience. Further, what sets them apart from garden variety pastiche is that their deployment of nostalgic regalia appears almost incidental. Their enthusiasm for black metal at its most outrageous, lavish, opulent, and uninhibited comes across…