This trio is from none-other than Sweden (does every city block have it's own band there??) and contains ex-Dark Funeral drummer Draugen, and if I'm not mistaken, ex-vocalist/bassist Themgoroth (who's since changed his name to Ornias, as well as his vocal style). I'm sure you'll gain somewhat of an idea of the music simply because two ex-members of Dark Funeral are creating it, but unlike D.F, Svartsyn create a less-listenable, dirtier, and more violent disc. At times reminding me of Baltak (simply because the vocals seem far away, and the sound is so violently huge), this 46 minute disc does nothing to hold a persons interest, or even deserve more than a few plays. I'm really having trouble coming up with ideas for this particular review, simply because the disc has such a lack of surprises, and because of that surpasses mere boredom. Vocals are quite different from Ornia's Dark Funeral days (if this is Themgoroth) but follow a similar (yet much WORSE) pattern of violent screams done at large levels. Musically, the drumming is quite excellent, but the riffs and even one-time usage of both keyboards and female vocals is completely unsuccessful. Very fast obviously, the disc blasts through the greater part of it's decent playing time (speed is up there with Dark Funeral and Baltak. Boring fast black metal, doing nothing to evolve the scene, or even worthy itself of time in my disc player.

update from ChorazaiM : Draugen of SVARTSYN later emailed me, asking me to point out a minor error in the review. To quote : "Ornias is NOT Themgoroth, still Ornias did some rehearsals with Dark Funeral back in '93 handling the vocals."...Sorry for any confusion this may have caused, and thanks to Draugen for emailing us at LARM! and correcting us on this...

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