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Vemod - The Deepening review



Reviewer:
8.0

78 users:
7.19
Band: Vemod
Album: The Deepening
Style: Black metal
Release date: January 19, 2024
A review by: Netzach


01. Mot Oss, En Ild
02. Der Guder Dør
03. True North Beckons
04. Fra Drømmenes Bok I
05. Inn I Lysende Natt
06. The Deepening

The darkest months have passed by, and the days are quickly getting longer again. Somewhere in between, you'll find Vemod’s dreamy, gazing black metal evoking the sense of the December clouds dissipating and the Sun’s rays once more shining into your eyes, but it still being pretty damn dark.

From the echoing fjords and roaring sea of central Norway, Vemod (Melancholy) brings a bunch of desolate yet majestic tunes with ambitious scope. The band released their debut album way back in 2012, so this second effort has been a long time coming. It is probably not very helpful to regard The Deepening in the context of a band that has had over a decade to gather new influences, hone its skills, and develop its style, so let's forget about that for now and see what this new album has to offer.

Norway is a sparsely populated land full of desolate wilderness, long and lonely mountain roads, and raging waves, which is encapsulated in Vemod’s music. A few listens at this, and you'll soon get a sense of why black metal was first developed in this rugged part of the world. After a short intro, “Der Guder Dør” (Where Gods Die) leaps out at you with unrelenting blast beats behind drawn-out chord progressions and soaring lead melodies that bring to mind a more stripped-down (or down to earth, if you prefer) Alcest, being contemplating rather than ferocious and haunting rather than destroying. This is the kind of music which finds a pattern that seems to work well, and then goes on to play that for minutes on end at times. Only after about 7 minutes (which is perhaps 1 or 2 too many) does the 13 minute long song change shape and quiet down into ambience, martial drums and, eventually, solemn choirs. The song as a whole, however, goes by faster than you'd expect from the prolonged runtime and makes the band's lofty ambitions perfectly clear.

In fact, only four of these six tracks are actual songs, giving you an idea of the general runtime of each. Unsurprisingly, as it goes, the shortest and most condensed song (at roughly 7 minutes) is also the most engaging: the instrumental “Inn I Lysande Natt” (Into Shining Night) builds on a mid-paced, echoing lead guitar that progressively gets supported by twangy, gothic country guitars in Wild West-meets-Trondheim fashion, and is a quite unique and surprising piece of music. I wouldn't mind if Vemod had taken this concept further, because while the other songs are well written and emotional enough, they're of the sort that I would expect when listening to something best described as atmospheric blackgaze.

The title track clocks in at 16 minutes and features clean singing, ethereal chord progressions, rasping screams, bouncy bass, and, well, lots of ideas through its many dynamic shifts, but is slightly marred by its own ambition. As you might have guessed, that's a nice way to say it's too long; even though all the various sections are engaging enough, a little trim wouldn't have hurt. Only a few bands can get away with writing songs of such length, and Moonsorrow this ain't.

Potential for self-editing aside, The Deepening is an evocative, beautiful piece of what I'd like to call “serene black metal”, blending melodic black, blackgaze and ambience into a good whole that come through great in its handcrafted-sounding production, and gets a bonus point for the fabulous “Inn I Lysande Natt”. It's out 19 January on Prophecy Productions.



Rating breakdown
Performance: 7
Songwriting: 7
Originality: 7
Production: 8

Written by Netzach | 12.01.2024




Comments

Comments: 9   Visited by: 112 users
12.01.2024 - 19:53
Sand
Aw it's never too many of such bands. But I wish the production were a bit "worse" so the vocals are more muffled
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Non serviam
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23.01.2024 - 12:43
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Staff
Saw them at a pretty niche festival around the time their debut came out and I was awestruck by their sound at first, but at around the halfway point of their set I got the feeling that they had one really good trick but they were overusing it. Don't really get the same feeling from this one, so it seems like they used the time since wisely.
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Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
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23.01.2024 - 16:00
Rating: 7
musclassia
Staff
The first few minutes left me a bit underwhelmed but I ultimately came round to it. “Serene black metal” seems like a fair description - True North Beckons and Inn I Lysande Natt aren't really blackgaze so much as the kind of black-tinged post-rock that Agalloch sometimes produced, while the title track goes more blackgaze; I kinda prefer the former approach
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23.01.2024 - 16:27
nikarg
Staff
I also singled out “Inn I Lysande Natt” as the best track on here. "Der Guder Dør" and "The Deepening" have some fantastic sections and ideas, but, as you say, they are too long for their own good.

Beautiful cover art, and great job on pointing it out in your own way in the first paragraph. Very enjoyable to read review, as always, but don't you think the overall rating is a bit higher than it should be, considering what you wrote about the album? Not that it's important, just mentioning it.
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24.01.2024 - 09:13
Rating: 8
Netzach
Planewalker
Written by nikarg on 23.01.2024 at 16:27

Beautiful cover art, and great job on pointing it out in your own way in the first paragraph. Very enjoyable to read review, as always, but don't you think the overall rating is a bit higher than it should be, considering what you wrote about the album? Not that it's important, just mentioning it.

It's probably a 7 or 7.5 really but I've been trying to stick to integer ratings since last year and I gave it a bonus point for that beautiful instrumental track. I don't think it makes much sense to have a lot of decimal ratings whereas other sites tend to have from 0 to 10 or 0 to 5 with .5 intervals, but I might have to drop this practice if it causes too much confusion in context of other ratings on here. I don't know, what do you think?
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My "blackened synth metal" solo project: maladomini.bandcamp.com.

Whenever I write something funny, weird, or pretentious... I learned English by playing Baldur's Gate, okay?
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25.01.2024 - 01:32
nikarg
Staff
Written by Netzach on 24.01.2024 at 09:13

I don't know, what do you think?

I'd give it a 6 myself if I used integer numbers, but, mind you, I don't find the "6" to be bad by any means. Anyway, as far as ratings go, I also don't find decimals very helpful; I think .5 intervals are more than adequate, if someone wants to use decimals. But that's really a personal opinion, and I find ratings to be an unnecessary headache, which is why I don't use them any more.
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29.01.2024 - 19:42
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Reminds me visiting Kvikkjokk one in not so distant past where friend of mine asked this is where road ends. Old saami man told no this is where road begins . How you describe thus album, place on a mountains and fjords, well it's harmony, not city concrete jungle and chaos and stress.
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I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens.

Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"

I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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29.01.2024 - 21:02
Rating: 8
Netzach
Planewalker
Written by nikarg on 25.01.2024 at 01:32

Written by Netzach on 24.01.2024 at 09:13

I don't know, what do you think?

I find ratings to be an unnecessary headache, which is why I don't use them any more.

Totally agreed. We'll see what I decide to do.
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My "blackened synth metal" solo project: maladomini.bandcamp.com.

Whenever I write something funny, weird, or pretentious... I learned English by playing Baldur's Gate, okay?
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30.01.2024 - 20:21
Rating: 8
no one
Or it's getting darker and the days shorter. Beautiful album and glad I have all the autumn and winter months to enjoy it.
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