NSBM cannot deliver what it promises. A listener must be either easily satisfied by symbols or oblivious to their own culture, whose most threatening, offensive, and confident components NSBM purports to represent. If this music is supposed to be a potent manifestation of said culture, then we can only repeat after Nietzsche, that what already trembles should be further pushed.
Kaevum is already a fairly established name and without a doubt one of the best from the newer generation of bands considered, rightfully or not, NSBM. Lengthy songs on Ultra slowly envelop the listener by developing in a linear manner. Succeeding riffs do not feel unrelated to those preceeding them, but nor do they offer alternative directions. The contrasting parts and their variations share a logic that unites them in momentum and little else.
Melodies are not constructed and presented in the most rigid, basic manner as is common in this genre. Bass adds another dimension to echoing and distant guitars. The entire formula is actually very refined; it is quality and effort through and through, but musical themes are very broad and in fact perhaps too much so to make firm statements. It is a modern music made by progressive, open-minded individuals. And yet this whole breadth remains limited to a certain plane, which makes it seem to be lacking a certain internal dynamic in spite of relatively developed songwriting.
In every aspect of this music, an undercurrent of self-destruction permeates, a sort of pre-existing condition which condemns musicians to self-sabotage every effort on their part from the onset. Suffused by apathy and crushing despair, the riffs, despite being fairly sophisticated and interestingly laid, achieve monotony of most tried and tired chord progressions with low tension between them, reproducing moods which should be alien to this genre. If one would attempt to conceptualize the gestalt of this music it would often resemble a mellowed out rock or post-hardcore more than anything metal.
And when a familiar impulse, impossible to mistake, so firmly it is rooted in the – fuck it! – Aryan soul finally sets in for a moment, it is only for a rather dissapointing realisation that what is being heard is actually a tribute to Burzum or Darkthrone (or is it just the blood and tradition?) which is then squandered in the inconsequential, bereft of the same depth or that unyelding, archetypal quality.
Creative and intense, yet somewhat broken vocals betrays inconsistent emotionality further, thus any claim to power, beauty or even hatred ends up as unconvincing. Due to swathes of material being confused or featureless in terms of its most important focal points, when the album ends it seems hard to accept that really that is all there is to it. Overall though, it leaves this very wrong impression of ambivalence and frailty.
For a brief reference of cultural power of original black metal, one must look no further than to the pitiful caveats in which normies have to wrap, to a point of suppression, their attraction to music made thirty-five years ago by one racist Scandinavian kid. This influence is now felt even throughout what is basically a first musical choice for those in opposition to the ideas of black metal, namely punk music. Is the direction in which Kaevum is taking the legacy of their compatriots capable of such thing? And why not want to create music solely of such magnitude?
Black metal once provided us with genuine cultural ammunition. Not being overtly political, nor meant just to lift up the spirit of forsaken and destitute right, nor to merely provide just some content to fill the cultural demand. Instead it was able to point us to one authentic stream within ourselves, following which would also lead to views about things outside of the individual. However, as black metal lost its unique ability to tap into the unconditioned essence of nation’s soul, its fatalism and inhumanism, which once allowed to view the world from an unprecedented and outsider perspective, stopped being an asset.
Right now it seems that the whole flirtation of Right-wing identitarian music with black metal is over because ultimately the latter turns out to be a whole lot of degeneracy and not much else. Its current direction, even of those who are the most dedicated, radical, and militant, such as Kaevum, unfortunately still sounds too much like something to quietly put the Nordic-Germanic race to rest, not restore it.
Tags: Black Metal, kaevum, nsbm
I still quite enjoy their ‘Prakt’ demo, even despite the aberrant choice to use a photo of Greta Thunberg for the cover. Is there anything else from their discography worthy of attention?
There are some interesting things scattered on all of their releases, but I wouldn’t consider anything past Prakt to be essential as a whole. There are more things to appreciate on Ultra than on their proper black metal releases, but it’s like choosing between formulaic and fallacious.
This review reads like someone desperately trying to mimic the Brett Stephens style and becoming a parody of itself in the process. Passages like
“Succeeding riffs do not feel unrelated to those preceding them, but nor do they offer alternative directions”
and
“yet this whole breadth remains limited to a certain plane, which makes it seem to be lacking a certain internal dynamic in spite of relatively developed songwriting”
communicate literally nothing while trying to convey that the writer knows what they’re talking about. In the future I’d recommend that Max tries to find his own voice and style of review, rather than copy the authors he is obviously inspired by.
As for the music, I found this album more coherent than the absolute mess that was Kultur but I still think the vocal performance distracts from the overall aesthetic of the music, and that the riffs, as pointed out above, feel quite tired on this album. Natur to me remains the only essential Kaevum release and likely will remain so.
You mean Brett Stevens? I can live with being inspired/influenced by Prozac, but the truth is that I’m trying to express things for which there is really no precise and accepted language and I’m trying to have at least some objective framework. For the rest I’m counting on the good will of a reader to try to meet me halfway.
I agree that Ultra is better, but vocals are merely an additional point of my reservations. Perhaps even, in relation to Kultur, the proportions of guitars to vocals in terms of problematic content are reversed in favor of vocals.
“Succeeding riffs do not feel unrelated to those preceding them, but nor do they offer alternative directions”
communicates something. It says that the music avoids the blunder of a sequence of wholly unrelated parts, like when momentum or vibe is undermined by what comes next, but that the music also doesn’t do have any well placed, high impact parts that are powerful because of where they are placed.
In other words: The order of events neither adds, nor detracts, value.
A good melody is good, but a well placed good melody is epic. When a previous melody returns in a new context, that can be interesting, and what came before the current melody is important because of the contrast created. ‘C’ alone is not the same as ‘C’ after ‘B’, which is not the same as ‘C’ after A, IF the melodies do something like “offer alternative directions”.
Think about some of the best moments in the best metal, and how they needed the buildup and the contrast of what came before, or in other cases, how the moment needed to be the start, rather than the middle or end
You give the Brettster too much credit. His stuff reads like any late 19C writing.
This whole website seems like a tribute to Nietzsche and Spengler
The meaning of the sentences you cite as “not communicating anything” is actually very clear.
Like most DMU critics, all you are showing is the low level of reading comprehension and intellectual reach on your part.
I remember the Zealotry guy by this sort of stupid as well, despite his pretentions to being a Commie intellectual.
DMU argues that metal is art, all DMU critics argue that metal is self-expression and social tokenism instead. It is unsurprising that they two talk past each other.
I did Cocaine, Alcohol and Weed all at the same time in large amounts. My dopamine was off the charts, and that’s all that matters.
Because all philosophy is about increasing happiness, well, here you go, degeneracy is the way.
I have kaevum is me-uhm bear cave, big bear go cave, war metal tranny want trade whompum