Departure of the Witches, 1878 by Luis Ricardo Falero.
Ulver: Bergtatt – Et Eeventyr i 5 Capitler (1995)
Call me biased (for I do, in fact, work at the label) but Century Media’s latest vinyl reissues of Ulver’s “Black Metal Trilogie” (a.k.a. Three Journeyes Through the Norwegian Netherworlde) were beautifully executed, with expanded art, photos, and liner notes worthy of these extreme music landmarks.
Bergtatt – Et Eeventyr i 5 Capitler (which translates as “Spellbound – A Fairy Tale in 5 Chapters”) inaugurated Ulver’s saga, which was inspired by Scandinavian folk tales, was sung and screamed, not in modern Norwegian, but in archaic Dano-Norsk (wowza!), and almost single-handedly launched the folk/pagan/black metal sub-genre.
Right off the bat, Ulver gave listeners notice of their paradigm-shifting intentions via “I Troldskog Faren Vild” (Lost in a Forest of Trolls), with its rolling tempo, melancholy riffs, and poignantly woeful, almost monastic chants in place of black metal’s trademarked demonic screeching.
Yes, these would soon make an appearance, along with to-be-expected blast-beats, on the ensuing “Soelen Gaaer Bag Aase Need” (The Sun Goes Down Behind the Hills) and “Graablick Blev Hun Vaer” (She Noticed She Was Being Watched), but the latter surprised once again when its virulent onslaught was interrupted by near-silence, except for the sounds of the story’s titular maiden’s feet, evocatively crunching through snow.
Next, the entirely metal-deprived “Een Stemme Locker” (A Voice Is Calling) shows precisely where one of my favorite bands, Agalloch, learned all of their blackened folk tricks: from the spare and mournful acoustic guitars, to the whispered vocals, to the echoing wood blocks.
Finally, last chapter, “Bergtatt - Ind i Fjeldkamrene” (“Into the Chambers of the Mountain”) returns to black metal’s all-annihilating “comfort zone,” but not without room for sudden breaks into atmospheric acoustics that left no doubt about Ulver’s desire to continually challenge pre-supposed expectations.
Thing is, no one could have possibly imagined just how far afield the band’s experiments would go in years to come …
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