EP REVIEW: Avgrunn – Vingulmork
Norwegian blackened thrashers VINGULMORK have been blending the sort of coarse and raw black metal their homeland is known for with the speed and energy of thrash metal since 2012. Their limited number of releases, including 2015’s debut full length, Chiaroscuro, has made sure that they have built up a small but respectable following, gaining them fans throughout their home country and beyond, although, to this point they haven’t been able to make huge waves on the international scene. Their latest EP, Avgrunn, could very well change this for them, as, in the four years since VINGULMORK put out their debut record, their sound has developed and changed vastly, showing a marked leap forward in terms of songwriting and musical approach.
Starting Avgrunn off on a strong note, Ytterst begins as a surprisingly epic and atmospheric affair, with clean guitar passages that slowly but surely give ground to a more aggressive and fierce sound driven by soaring guitar melodies, monstrous drumming and rabid, frenetic vocals which all make for a vicious yet glorious sound that it’s hard not to love. It’s a great, eclectic piece of music that sets the EP on the right track immediately. Eternally Swallow, Eternally Keep is a much more visceral and robust song, with blistering speeds and plenty of venom in its delivery to make it sound completely caustic. However, it never truly loses the tight, catchy sound of the previous songs, with some moments even being quite uplifting and grandiose in among the general power of the music. It’s an excellent, energetic track with some impressive and imaginative musicianship which raises the musical bar to even loftier heights.
Land Of Nothing has a few elements in its sound that are very evocative of melo-death, which sets it apart significantly from the music that came before it. It dives headlong into a dizzying, chaotic motif that builds a dense and oppressive wall of noise characterised by intricate drums, feral, demented vocals and razor sharp, precise guitar hooks, with the guitars in particular being some of the best on the entirety of Avgrunn. It’s a fantastic, grating and dissonant slab of monolithic black metal with a brilliant sound and musical approach, adding a great climactic note to the EP. Døderlein, the fourth and final song on the record, is another creative highlight, with plenty of dancing, ethereal sections making for an airier and more progressive sound, with the guitars and drums especially taking the music down a much more interesting path, with the hellish howl of the vocals tying the whole song together. Again, there’s plenty of expertly delivered guitar parts, which inject lots of great riffs into the mix, and make sure that this final song brings the EP to a close on one of it’s better performances, leaving the listener eager to hear more.
Avgrunn could, in this sense, prove to be a landmark release for VINGULMORK, and be the point where they shift their focus to a much more varied and diverse sound. This is a very good follow up to Chiaroscuro, with the musicianship being noticeably leaner and more developed, leaving little, if any, room for filler. With any luck, whatever the band has planned next will be a continuation of this new and impressive change in the band’s sound.
Rating: 8/10
Avgrunn is out now via Crime Records.
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