Album Review: "Gotterdammerung" by VARG

Although I am grateful to the British Empire, Elvis Presley and Black Sabbath for ensuring the majority of heavy metal is performed in the one language I fully understand, I wouldn’t mind if more bands performed in their native tongue.  The rhythm, cadence and melody of the vocals has always been more important to me than their lyrical content.  This isn’t to say strong lyrics are not of great value, but if a German band can get the vibe right, I am happy to dust off the little German I did learn in school and let Google translator handle the rest.  Certainly, if a band is performing German Pagan Metal, it is reasonable to assume, expect, and hope for the lyrics to be in German.  In this matter Varg delivers.

Varg has quite a devoted following in their home country with their brutal assault of melodic death metal.   The label of death metal alone does no fully describe their sound, as there are several passages throughout the EP which delve fully into the black metal sound.  Their strong visual element is a perfect blend of the death and black metal aesthetics.

To Hell and Back: A Trip to the World's Most Diabolical Record Store -by Danny Nichols

The Gates of Hell- Neseblod Record Store

There may not be a location in the world which is as singularly important to a genre of music as Helvete Records in Oslo, Norway was to black metal.  Maybe not so much to the sound itself, but definitely to the establishment of the cult following it achieved in the early 90s, and which persists until this day.  Black metal is the most extreme form of music, with guitar riffs so fast they morph into an ambient noise, blast beats on drums so intense they sound like a Gatling gun and vocals comprised of demonic grows, screams and yelps.  The black metal aesthetic, at least in the early days, included musicians in corpse paint, stages decorated with  pentagrams and an overt fascination with the occult.

Heavy Metal Everywhere 

If you are reading this, you probably already know what black metal is and how it became an musical phenomena based out of Norway in the early 90s.  Although black metal did not originate in Norway, its creed, sound and direction were largely codified there, with much credit due to a man named Euronymous and his band Mayhem.  The movement garnered worldwide attention when members of Mayhem and their followers began the nefarious practice of burning down churches throughout Norway.  Partially to create a headquarters for the proliferation of this cult,  Euronymous opened a record store on Schweigaards Gate in east Oslo.  He named this store “Helvete”, the Norwegian word for “Hell”.