Reviewed By: Jason Deaville
Rating: 9.5
So, it goes without saying that when a brand new album from one of the aforementioned bands drops, the handful of us over at The Metal Pit that love this stuff get giddy like schoolgirls, barely able to string together coherent sentences, what with all the salivation pouring from our gobs. Today is one of those days, as we have received a brand album from legendary Nordic musical extremists, Tsjuder.
Helveger, the band’s first full-length album in eight years, and sixth overall, is absolutely, unapologetically relentless. It recalls 2004’s Desert Northern Hell, perhaps more so than any other album since. Of course, the production quality is leaps and bounds over what DNH threw at us. This isn’t to say Helveger is over-produced, far from it. It’s literally a perfect blend of new-school recording technologies with an old-school vibe. It blasts from the speakers with a clarity and resilience that allows the listener to hear every blackened detail, in such a way that it can be a little overwhelming, especially with a killer set of headphones strapped to the ears.
Immediately, Helveger isn’t too far removed from some of the more contemporary Norwegian black metal bands. It’s extremity explores similar realms as 1349‘s latest album, The Infernal Pathway. Both albums exude a raw and primitive allure while delivering an ice-encased precision, both in the execution of the instrumentation and the previously-mentioned engineering precision. I can’t understate how good this album sounds. It truly raises the bar for black metal of this ilk.
‘Iron Beast’ starts the album off with an anthemic ode to all that is black metal. From start to finish it rips skin from flesh and pulverizes bone to dust. Thematically, it explores what it is to be TRVE, with lyrics that read: “Black metal razor blades… fifty-cal hellraiser… barbed wire wrapped… diesel monster unleashed“. Clearly, Tsjuder have summoned a black metal demon from fire and ice. It doesn’t get any more black metal than that.
Track two, ‘Prestehammeren’, written in their native tongue, literally translates to “The Priest’s Hammer”. As you could probably surmise, this song is an ode to the old days of the True Norwegian Black Metal Inner Circle, spelling out the virtues of guys like Varg Vikernes and Euronymous burning churches in an attempt to erase every last vestige of the holy cloth from Nordic lands. Musically, this beast of a song is the ultimate soundtrack to appendages being nailed to the holy cross, with each successive riff a blow from Thor’s hammer that spews undefiled blood across defiled soil.
Around midway through the album, listeners are treated to what I believe is an auto-biographical account of what it means to be Tsjuder. The song is entitled ‘Gods Of Black Blood’. It is here that we are introduced to their true intentions, with descriptors like: “We are emissaries from Hell. Bringers of misery to the feeble. We rape and feast on the angels. Perverted, malicious, bloodthirsty“.
There is no doubt in my mind that the extremity that flows from Helveger is authentic and true-to-form, from a purely musical sense, that is. It’s not like Tsjuder saddle-up on their flaming demon horses and ride through the streets of Oslo murdering and maiming on any given Sunday. Of course not. Let us not forget that these guys are just people. People who have coffee in the morning while checking their Instagram. People who eat lunch at nice cafes and have Christmas dinner with their loving, supportive families. People who shit, piss, fart, sleep, ache, complain, cry, laugh, hurt. Even decked out with the grimest of corpsepaint, they are, after all, mortal, and not the literal blackened demons they would have you believe.
Lastly, let us not forget it’s all about the music… and what wonderfully extreme, evil music it is! Take it for what it is and enjoy the ride into frigid, unholy Norwegian black metal in its finest form.