SVARTSYN : “Aandens melankoli” (1996)

In 1994, somewhere in Bodø, Norway, the band Incitatus was born, which subsequently changed its name to SVARTSYN in 1995. Under its new concept, the band consistsed of three members: Jonas (guitars, bass, drums, keyboards), Heike (guitars) and Ravn (vocals), none of whom are currently active musicians, at least as far as is known. The trio released a single EP titled “Aandens melankoli”. It was released in 1996 on 12″  by the Osiris Produksjoner label, and was later reissued by other labels over the years for a short time.
And not by chance, as this is one of the cult (and of course, among the first) black metal records with a doom metal influence, and it is precisely the authenticity and raw production of the 90s that make it truly irresistible to the ears of most lovers of the genre.
Echoing keyboard strokes merge with ambient noises and synths dancing in a peculiar melancholy, soon greeted by a deep Norwegian voice that sounds like a narrator straight out of a Scandinavian folklore tale and dissolves into blizzards and synth melodies. The intro “Forhekset av nordlyset” passes so imperceptibly that you won’t even notice that it’s just over four minutes long.
The second track of the album, “Den monumentale horde”, continues for a moment with the synths of the previous track surrounded by haunting whispers, which are quickly followed by beautiful ethereal folk sounding melodies, traditional to the Finnish scene, and soon break into towering raw vocals – of course, nicely muted in the mix and surrounded in places by choral chants. The mid to slow tempo of the interestingly composed guitars, bass and drums, the magical synths, the sound of the bell and other ambient noises, and Ravn’s incredibly strong vocals, deliver a classic sound that I’m sure many of you are dreaming of here and now.
There are two more tracks on the album in an equally ethereal atmosphere – “Mektheitens herskere” and a beautiful outro, and all the songs sound like one unchanging whole and flow into each other quite naturally. You play the album and forget about the whole world around you – that’s basically it.
This is one of those albums that makes every pore of your skin crawl and takes you to other dimensions, taking you into a meditative state of mind and locking you in time and space.
The depth of the voices and the whispers, the emotional charge and timbre of the harsh vocals and the airiness of the clean chores, the spectacular keyboards and synths, the playful approach to the echoes, the tempos and the ambient noises, the beautiful deep doom metal riffs…all this is just part of the splendour of this album.
If you like bands like Agalloch, Empyrium, Tenhi, Dolorian, Katatonia, Kyprian’s Circle and others of this calibre, you will be very impressed…

Listen to “Aandens melankoli” below:

P. S.  The new album cover is definetely of better quality, but the old one is entirely created by Heike and is more authentic, at least in my opinion. Both are good, anyways. They complement the music in the album really well.

You can still find some copies of the album on Discogs: https://bit.ly/3wpzVDA