Vemod – Venter på stormene

vemod-venter_pa_stormeneNostalgia is like going back to your rapist and asking for your first kiss. If I were a 2000s kid, I’d want to be part of those glorious days of the early 1990s. As a 1990s kid, I might want to “go back.”

Yet you can’t go home again. All you can do is re-heat and imitate the past, and hope that the magic comes back. But the magic came from the convergence of the time, what was going on in the world, and the art. That isn’t to say the music isn’t still relevant; it is eternally relevant. But what made it great was how it was organized in the minds of its creators, not the techniques they use. Trying to imitate the techniques is thinking backward, or going from the whole impression to try to recreate the idea it conveys, instead of finding that idea and using it to make another (not necessarily new, but more accurate) impression. I could buy ten truckloads of these retro-imitative albums and I’d still be in nowheresland, ready to trade my left testicle for the ability to buy Transilvanian Hunger or Pure Holocaust again and to experience the joy of discovering it again, like the very first time!

But it is not to be. We wouldn’t want it to be that way. Time marches us forward both toward doom and toward greater heights. Vemod adopts a mix between the Ulver-styled late Nordic material and the French-style barely-holding-on black metal of the wave after the Nordic black metal explosion. That being said, there’s nothing to criticize Vemod for. They play perfectly, many of these riffs are catchy, and they use extended interludes well. There’s just something missing at the center, sort of like there has been in modern life, where we wonder what the point of it all is. As it is, these songs leave us with a feeling of melancholy, having missed the bus to the land of adventure, and maybe a bit of dark loneliness. But after that, it is just decoration.

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9 thoughts on “Vemod – Venter på stormene”

  1. bitterman says:

    More reiteration. Sounds like the Dawn ep Necropolis records put out. The guy in this band has a somewhat interesting Incantation/Profanatica influenced band as well called Black Majesty that could be cool if they make “the flows from song to song” Havohej style album. Listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQof_5-BuPY

    1. This is total candymetal. It’s sing-song. Maybe this is metal for middle school girls, idk, but not for me.

  2. Steve Brettens says:

    Nu-blackmetal can go a couple of different ways, and one is the candy of pure melod-sound. That’s what Vemod does. Through a combination of tuning, melodic intervals and sustain-heavy distortion, this band creates a wave of melodic sound — the affinity of notes for large gaps — without deviating from the basic melodic patterns of pop. It’s an engaging listen if you like to clap your hands and bob your head while naked in the middle of the intersection.

    1. Nu-blackmetal isn’t black metal so call it nublak or noob for short.

  3. Glistening with Masculinity says:

    Sorcier des Glaces was a step in the right direction. Though they tapped into the past, they weren’t 100% mimickers. I can almost taste the Canadian winter in my macho mouth.

  4. Robert says:

    I like how this review was written by “Staff” yet it’s done very subjectively. The staff is a three-headed beast. Arrgghhh!!

  5. blauth says:

    The nostalgia trip is a hard one to shake, and many of us just don’t bother investigating new music, even with the best efforts of this site. As you rightly have been pointing out, there’s a fine line between pale imitation (above), and proper resurrection/continuation (Beherit’s “Engram,” the new material on Autopsy’s “All Tomorrow’s Funerals,” or even the one track that I’ve heard from Birth A.D. on this site which sounds quite nifty). The only problem with those approaches, I fear, is that there may not be much tread left on the tires of the resurrection wagon. In the same light, I’m looking forward to the new Pentagram (Chile), Autopsy, Danzig and Thou Art Lord releases; I’m mildly anxious about the quality of the new Von, Carcass, Immolation and Summoning releases . . .

  6. Robert says:

    “That being said, there’s nothing to criticize Vemod for. They play perfectly, many of these riffs are catchy, and they use extended interludes well. There’s just something missing at the center….”

    I personally think it’s the times, Brett. This band did nothing wrong and if fact, this is quite genius black metal. However, modernity has destroyed all illusion of not only black metal but art in general. The imagination has been crushed by the weight of pop culture and the media who pay more attention to vapid issues and dare not cover anything politically incorrect or anything pertinent to our times.

    “…sort of like there has been in modern life, where we wonder what the point of it all is.”

    Modern life has warped our appreciate for metal. Sure, the bands of today aren’t as good as the Ancient Ones but some bands you criticize makes me cringe a little. Have you given up that much on the scene? Some of your criticisms are valid and others, I question why. I figure so long as a metal scene exists, even if barely (too many bands, not enough fans) then we should stand up for it and not just live for metal that was produced from 1988-1997.

  7. This stuff is a total lullaby. The pleasant melodies distract you, and then you get tired as they repeat again and again. Soon you are asleep, and when you wake up, you’re at the checkout counter, having just bought this shit album.

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