Band:	Svart
Album:	Våran Tid Är Förbi
Style:	Depressive black metal
Release date:	April 01, 2009
A review by:	Troy Killjoy

01. Den Absoluta Tomheten (The Absolute Emptiness)
02. Mot Dödens Slätter (Towards The Fields Of Death)
03. Dessa Kedjor, Dessa Bojor (These Chains, These Shackles)

Bonus tracks:
04. Ångest (Intro)
05. Då Allt Upphör (When Everything Ceases)
06. Ändlöst (Endless)
07. Låt Det Ske (Let It Happen)

Draug created Svart just a few years ago, in 2007 to be exact, with the intent of expressing his feelings to the world (or at least a very small portion of it) through the majesty of song. Bearing that in mind, there is more to this album than simple emotions. There is a great deal of atmosphere - a particularly daunting atmosphere at that - in addition to what can only be described as an emotional journey. But there are also significant weaknesses in the bones of this album's skeleton.

Våran Tid Är Förbi consists of three tracks that span just short of an hour, and judging by the English translations of the song titles, my guess is that Draug isn't the happiest Swede on the planet. His piercing shrieks and mournful howls set the tone for what will be some of the most burdensome 50 minutes you'll ever have to endure, and he does his best to bring it all back together with soothing, melancholic passages. These moments, however, are negated by the inclusion of K's relentless destruction of his drum kit, making for a temporarily headache-inducing listen as opposed to a truly gripping one. Just when Draug captures his audience in defeat, he lets them go to the repetition of unfitting blastbeats. The ultimate result of this song structure is an album that makes you want to kill yourself due as much to the lyrical content as the album's inconsistency.

All is not bad though. For starters, the album's track layout seems to be an interesting telling of a transitional emotional phase: "Den Absoluta Tomheten" appears to be the manifestation of Draug's anger, focusing more on the quick-paced instrumentation and relentless shrieks, while the hybrid "Mot Dödens Slätter" seems to be more of a segue before Draug is forced to submit to depression on "Dessa Kedjor, Dessa Bojor". And of course the daunting atmosphere must again be mentioned, which would have been far more powerful had Draug chosen to focus more on including the audience in his journey as opposed to wailing through his suffering alone.

While the concept of the album works stylistically, there doesn't seem to be enough conviction within each story to really help the listener along in the process. Unfortunately Våran Tid Är Förbi comes across as an individual voyage, one that Draug is undoubtedly proud of, but with the lack of consistency on this release, Svart has failed to venture into cathartic territory.