When
The Black Death
(Svartedauen)
[Tatra]


'When' is probably one of the most obscure bands out there. Most of you are probably familiar with 'When' from the intro track on Satyricon-Dark Medieval Times (taken from the "Black, White & Grey" album). Well, this is by no means Black Metal, Metal, or even really "music". It is like an experimental soundtrack to the 14th century plague known as "The Black Death", and all in all, it's quite a fucking horrifying album! It's something you definitely DON'T want to leave playing at night. It's only 1 track (which runs about 40 minutes) with various chilling sounds of people crying, screaming, dying, etc. Picture a movie without the images & you might get an idea of what this is all about. Throughout the album you here things such as footsteps, evil laughing, crows...and when there IS music, it usually goes from being silent & pleasing to something that crashes in at a very high volume to make you fucking jump out of your seat & have chills run down your spine. Everyone I have spoken to agrees that this album is beyond amazing...it is darker than -ANY- Black Metal band, and that includes Abruptum, etc. The layout also serves as a sort of visual look at what the album is about. This album is actually based on a series of drawings by Theodore Kittelsen entitled Svartedauen from 1900 (he drew the image on the cover of Burzum's "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" & "Filosofem" albums). This CD is beyond chilling in every way, and it makes you think twice about putting it into your player at a high volume when you are alone at night. This bands has had other releases before & after this one (include an album which was a satirical play on Edvard Grieg's "Gynt") but none of them have come close to being this amazing. If you can ever find this album, I strongly urge you to buy it. Although I will warn you that it is VEEEEEEERRRRRY unstructured & there is no real order going on in here, so if this doesn't sound appealing to you, then you should probably forget about it. If you have trouble finding it & you really want a copy (which is more than likely), then email me & I will give you the addresses of some good distros that carry it.


© 1998 atrox666