Band's List Pagan Black Ravenhelm Grave Beyond Yggdrasil

This is the debut album from Ravenhelm, after the self released demo "Infernal Ancient Years". After a short period of time after this band started to record material for a discography, this small underground project managed to get signed for a full length a few months after the release of the debut demo.

How does this album stand up though? For the small fan base for this band can tell that the album, "Grave Beyond Yggdrasil" sounds very similar to that of the previouse release. Oddly, the album is raw, minimal and harsh though still very coherent and listenable. The guitar tones are super distorted and thin, yet still prominent enough for listeneres to know exaclty what the riff exactly is. Unlike other black metal bands, this album is recorded and mastered in a very unorthodox way. It sounds like there is no production on what so ever, but the sound quality is still oddly top knotch.

The album starts off with a repetitive ambient intro done through what sounds like a heavily delayed and Wah guitar melody that pulses in an out. The melody itself is similar to the black metal realm, dark and distantly cold. Similar to sound such as Germany's Xergath or USA's Xasthur. Guitar fuzz and swells roar through the duration of the song.

Most of the other songs on the album are a combination of Nordic inspired black metal with a combination of thrash metal and melodic black metal. There are several parts in each song where it starts to resemble a prog essence with short transitions to melodic riffs that sound semi-jazz inspired. Songs such as Wolves of the Northelands, Heathen Victory, Primeval Memories of Forgotten Forests, and Nordic Nightshade all keep this idea and formula in mind. Most of them are very thrashy and raw, with sections of each song carrying a melodic undertone. Even if one listens to parts of each song, certain 'power metal' riff styles can be heard. Its hard to actually describe the sound of this band, as it seems that Munnin wants to create a unique sound.

There is one dark ambient track to grace this album titled, "Unholy Screams From the Black Forest". Lets just say this is the highlight of the album. As the title suggests, this song is like a wandering ghost in the center of lush northern forest shrouded in fog, screaming and moaning from depths of oblivion. It starts out with a desolate swelling and pulsing tunes from a synth that is built upon layers of rather interesting effects. Since the title does have "Screams" in the title, you may wonder...why? Well, this songs is made to mimic a horror film atmospher with a mock EVP(Electronic Voice Phenomenon) in the background. In essence, Munnin has created a ghostly apparition that has been recorded in this "white Noise Phenemena" its eerie and downright scary. With roaring screams and moans, with a section of what can be descried as a "demon possessed child laugher"

Track, Immortal Gods of Frost* is recorded very different from the other, its much more raw than any other song here. In fact it is raw as raw can get. This is similar to Darkthrone style with a song style similar to Mayhem's "Funeral Fog"

The self titled track "Ravenhelm" is a bit of a let down though. The music, and riffs are great... but the vocals are just plain and simple weak compared to the haunting wails and screeches of the other songs.

Overall. The riffs are super distorted yet very listenable, the bass is inaudible(Even though there really isn't any there to begin with). The drumming however is a bit tedious and inumanly fast for the reason it was done on a drum machine. This album is truly unique in its own regard. A decent starting point for this project.