ALBUM REVIEW: Helvegr – Tsjuder
Among the numerous Norwegian acts who came to prominence and assured that the genre had a creative future after the mid-90s, TSJUDER are perhaps one of the most celebrated, and easily one of the most consistently impressive. Right from the release of their debut album, Kill For Satan, in 2000, the band have garnered a solid and well-deserved reputation as one of the most unflinchingly aggressive and intense acts that the Norwegian scene ever produced, with the overwhelming majority of their first five records going on to be regarded as classics of the genre after the dawn of the new millennium. The band’s sixth album, Helvegr, their first in close to eight years, is one of their very best, often equalling the power and impact of their most acclaimed work.
Iron Beast kicks things off in impressive fashion, with buzz-saw guitars, frenetic drums and weighty basslines creating a sharp and chaotic slab of black metal, going straight for the jugular rather than easing the listener in. It’s classic black metal at its belligerent best, making an emphatic statement straight away. Prestehammeren possesses a more epic feel, with full chords and intricate drums, along with Nag‘s feral snarls providing the perfect accompaniment to the blistering melodies and driving pace, applying a punchy heavy metal undercurrent that makes this sound bombastic.
Surtr embraces an eerie guitar style and layered rhythms, crafting a dark, brooding atmosphere that is simmering with menace before giving way to outright aggression and morphing into another savage aural assault with some brilliantly tight leads and acerbic vocals. It’s an incredibly varied and effective track, incorporating more musical elements than some entire albums do. Gamle-Erik, a fantastically demented and unhinged number, blends jarring guitars, thunderous bass and machine gun drumming together in a dizzying whirlwind of intensity, with the sinister rasp of the vocals carving through the mix and being the focus around which the cacophony is centred, providing a short, sharp shock of rabid musicianship that is instantly memorable.
Chaos Fiend adopts a similar formula, with a punkier beat and primal, grating guitars matched by venom-soaked roars that all combine for a dense wall of visceral sound that rarely lets up, with only a middle section providing any reprieve. Gods Of Black Blood has a cavernous and imposing sound that retains the intensity of the previous two songs, but with a leaner approach to the riffs and vocals. Guest vocalist Seidemann intones in chanted spoken word passages that add a dramatic quality to this track that elevates it significantly, and it remains bestial despite its slower pace. Helvegr is another longer affair, but unlike Surtr it takes the music in a different direction, with cleaner guitar tones and measured tempos throughout turning this into an bleak, slow-burning track that relies on its atmospheric aspects as opposed to speed and ferocity to carry the music, departing significantly from the rest of the album without sacrificing its muscular sound.
Faenskap Og død lurches back abruptly to stringent, biting guitars, energetic drums and searing vocals, having an urgent edge that immediately grabs the listener’s attention. It stands in stark contrast to what came before it, showcasing that TSJUDER are at their best when they are at their most feral. Hvit Død again moves away from the established sound of the rest of the album and is dripping with ambience, with polished drum hooks and hazy bass and guitars creating an ethereal feel that perfectly caps off this album in a distinctive and interesting way, winding things down rather than providing another burst of brutality.
To simply say that Helvegr is another brilliant TSJUDER album doesn’t do this justice, because TSJUDER have developed a reputation for putting out instant classics with the same sort of undeniable certainty as tides, taxes and death. It’s certainly one of their best, or at the very least a marked step up from Legion Helvete and Antiliv, and having more in common with albums like Kill For Satan or Desert Northern Hell, with inspired guitar work and blistering, monstrous rhythms, whilst making room for a few intriguing flourishes along the way. This album showcases a band that feel reinvigorated and vibrant, not losing any of the original creative spark or zealous energy that many bands who have been around as long as them tend to do, and proving that they are still an incredibly relevant and influential force that could still run circles around the majority of modern black metal acts with ease.
Rating: 9/10
Helvegr is set for release on June 23rd via Season Of Mist.
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