This self-titled album is logically Ildjarn’s first album, after some demos and a 7-inch collaboration with Nidhogg. It is a collection of 27 hateful tracks straight from Ildjarn’s trusty 4-track forest hut studio, with a total length of 75 minutes.

For those familiar with Tolkien, I would simply describe this as "orc music". For those who need more, this is an audial form of primitive hate unleashed in the aesthetic form of black metal, yet having very little structural or melodic connection to rock or metal music in general. Ildjarn plays simple, corroded, distorted, ugly chord combinations on his bass and guitar, above a simple drum-machine rhythm. The drum-machine would not even be needed to lay out the rhythm here, as the bass and guitar themselves play their sequence of chords in a rhythmic, trance like manner, with all possible disregard for melody.

There is nothing even vaguely entertaining about this. The only movement and inspiration here is purely ritualistic and shamanistic, perhaps most characterized and defined by the screeching and snarling voice of Ildjarn invoicing misanthropy for humanity and respect for the Norwegian woods, animals and natural darkness. Rather than a metal record, this unaesthetic and uncivilized recording should be viewed as an ambient record, as action or progression or surprises do not exist in these 75 minutes of music, only an environment, a context to project thoughts and visions into, for the possible reception of an enlightening response.

I simply love this powerful work of art, as I do everything by Ildjarn. In comparison to "Det Frysende Nordariket", which actually was a ‘compilation’ of different eras of material, this is stronger and with firmer roots, but less emotional and disturbing. Compared to the hateful and violent "Forest Poetry", this is darker and more introverted.

© 1999 black hate