VORDVEN is a strange appearance from No Colours releases, this is melodic metal that uses synths, female vocals and clear male vocals to create ”general purpose atmosphere”; Tolkien has influenced some of this but it isn’t Tolkien stuff throughout, maybe about northern epic mythicality in general.

What brings this a bit closer to other No Colours releases is the production, which in spite of being ”hifi” in clarity, has a traditional black metal thinness to it. The screamed vocals are a bit unnecessarily high, because in addition to the synths and the female vocals it makes the totality of this album sound emotional in a weak way; the album captures some threads of longing, loneliness, despair from the epic northern landscapes, but it is not powerful in the warrioric way like the best Viking metal is.

Is this DIMMU BORGIR meets SUMMONING?

It has commercial potential and also some commercial feel.

© 2000 black hate