The review game is a funny business. I genuinely don’t recall liking Endless Twilight of Co-Dependent Love, the last outing by Iceland’s post-metal legends Sólstafir, as much as I apparently did. It was a 2.5/5.0. Surely. But, as I prepared to tackle their eighth album, Hin helga kvöl (The Holy Suffering), I was shocked to learn that I’d 3.5ed Endless Twilight. And, wouldn’t you know, I was right! Yes, Endless Twilight was far too long. No, the production wasn’t good. And yes, Aðalbjörn Tryggvason’s vocals were more love-em-or-hate-em than ever. But, somehow, it held together as a very good album, something I re-discovered afresh delving back in after a four-year break. Speaking about Hin helga kvöl, Tryggvason said that one thing Sólstafir tried was to make the songs shorter but it’s “somewhat harder to write good short songs, so that was a real challenge.” Was it one the Icelanders were up to?
While Hin helga kvöl is shorter than Sólstafir’s last outing, at 50 minutes, with six of nine tracks comfortably clearing the five-minute mark, it’s not exactly an EP. But it’s not all about the length, as they (allegedly) say. And it would be fair to say that several of these short(er) songs are good, a few fantastic. The title track could easily have come off Sólstafir’s debut, Í blóði og anda. Harsh, bleak black metal, a big bass groove and Tryggvason’s emotive voice at its least objectionable, all serve to conjure the Icelandic majesty that made the band its name in the first place. This vitality and intensity, much missed on recent Sólstafir records, is matched, in starkly contrasting ways, by the album’s closing duo, “Nú mun ljósið deyja” and “Kuml (forspil, sálmur, kveðja).” The former leans into that Icelandic black metal fury of the title track, building up melodic textures to create layers of stark beauty. Highlight “Kuml” is an altogether different beast, slow, atmospheric doom, building in gorgeous sax and huge, sepulchral, clean vocals, which border on a monastic chant.
Hin helga kvöl (24-bit HD audio) by Sólstafir
In fact, the more time I’ve spent with Hin helga kvöl, the more I’ve found to enjoy. Mid-album cut “Vor ás,” which adds in haunting female vocals by Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir, is redolent of the more up-tempo cuts (like “Draumfari”) from personal favourite, Svartir sandar. However, Sólstafir also indulge in some of their more recent, uglier vices. Awful hard rock ‘anthem’ “Blakkrakki,” relies on multi-tracked, grainy vocals, with Tryggvason repeatedly shouting the song title over bland, repetitive chords and laboured bass. This simplistic songwriting is repeated on “Grýla,” albeit with somewhat more success. However, unfairly sandwiching it between languid, bluesy lament “Freygátan” and “Nú mun ljósið deyja,” only highlights the basic songwriting. The album’s longest cut “Sálumessa” does absolutely nothing to justify it’s runtime. Attempting, I think, to hark back to the forlorn beauty of Ótta, it succeeds only in making me want to listen to that record.
Listening to Hin helga kvöl, I feel like a marionette being sharply pulled between different poles. Sólstafir has simultaneously written some of the best material I’ve heard from them since Ótta (title track and “Kuml”), and some of the worst I’ve heard from them full stop (“Blakkrakki”). They have then combined this with a few other tracks, ranging from the very good (“Freygátan” and “Nú mun ljósið deyja”) to the very mediocre (“Hún andar” and “Sálumessa”) seemingly at random. Only the transition from “Nú mun ljósið deyja” into album closer “Kuml” flows in a way that makes real sense in terms of album pacing. As well as the confused structure, the sound is bad. However, it’s hard to know how much to blame this on the production and how much on the 128 kbps(!) mp3 files that someone deigned to share with us.1 In the more stripped-back tracks (like “Kuml”), the production just about holds up, albeit the master is loud. In other places though, notably “Nú mun ljósið deyja,” it sounds crushed and a bit flat. Either way, just like on Endless Twilight, Tryggvason’s vocals are again way too far forward in the mix, offensively so on “Blakkrakki.”
Hin helga kvöl is so damn close to being the album I desperately wanted from Sólstafir. Ditch two tracks (which, incidentally, would shave almost 12 minutes off the runtime) and re-order the rest to give the album a logical flow, and you’d be looking at a record that could stand toe-to-toe with pretty much anything in Sólstafir’s catalogue. As an all-around album experience, Hin helga kvöl is fatally flawed but, I think, I maybe, kind of … love it? It’s complicated.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 102 | Format Reviewed: 128 kbps mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Websites: solstafir.bandcamp.com | solstafir.is | facebook.com/solstafirice
Releases Worldwide: November 8th, 2024
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