Illmara – Blodlust
Band: Illmara
Album: Blodlust
Date of release: October 30th, 2024
Country: Sweden
Label: Independent
Format reviewed: High-quality digital recording
Don’t be fooled by the catchy beginning of Blodlust. This album holds the primal power of ancient witchcraft. As frightening as it can be, for the right audience it might also be mind altering. I came into the experience unprepared, so this review can serve as a warning or an invitation depending on the reader.
Right from the start Blodlust set me off in a good mood. The beginning is aggressive and relentless, fast paced and melodic. Something about it is so clean and simple. I feel myself relax and lean into it. The minimalistic production allows me to hear every detail. Two guitars play from different directions, creating a slight imbalance but also making it possible for me to separate what every individual guitar is doing. It is as if I am standing in the middle, surrounded by the band. I can hear the fingers on the frets, small irregularities in the playing that makes it human and intimate. This minimalist approach is honest and brave. I deeply appreciate it. The first three songs place me in the true black metal forest, much like early Darkthrone or Arckanum. I feel safe in my home turf. Oh, did I misjudge Illmara…
The drum work and vocals are as honest and real as the guitars but something about the vocals feels… different. The vocalist is ranging from standard black metal fry screams to almost spoken word crow-like outbursts, high pitched witchy screams and powerful cries with voice breaking. It is uncomfortable and sometimes sends chills down my back, but I choose to ignore it since the riffs are so nice. It turns out this is an early warning of what is to come. If these vocals make you uncomfortable, this is the time to step out.
The circle closes with the beginning of the fourth song. I can feel it, the force surrounding me and holding me down. Without warning the tempo has slowed down and the two guitars play a slow repetitive riff that goes on and on. After that wild beginning, to be thrown into this slowness is a strange experience. Now I see the witches. A group of naked bodies covered in blood, dancing around a huge bonfire, veiled in the thick grey smoke from whatever atrocity they are burning. And this is when the vocalist starts to make sense. The shrieks, the outbursts, the otherworldly noises. They are now spells being cast on the humid soil, in the flickering light from the fire.
From this point Blodlust is no longer a comfortable second wave album. It is a ritual, and I am part of it. The drums are turned into hypnotic ritual percussion and the guitars keep getting more and more entrancing with their slow repetition. The spells casted are aggressive, desperate, sometimes more of questions than commands, emotional and erratic. Even though I am native Swedish speaking the words that are spit out, shrieked, whispered and shouted sound other than human. A communication with something deep, something ancient and profound. It seems to be more for the band than for the listener. The audience is a participating witness. Maybe it is possible to take part in the ritual or use it to power your own if your emotions and intentions align with the spells, but this is not meant to be background music. This is personal and specific.
Every time I listen this album grows on me and honestly for every spin it gets more frightening. First time it all just happened, but when I listen again my intellect is observing what they are actually doing. This is when I realise how seductively catchy and melodic the first songs are, how the playing style of the guitarist keeps my attention locked in with small variations. It makes sense. The first three songs cleanse the space, cast the circle and raise the energy, and then the long slow ebb of the fourth song evolving into a long slow flood of spellcasting power. Is this done on purpose or is it an accidental effect of their aesthetic style? Regardless, I feel the cold hands of the Mara and of the ancient deep spirits of earth reaching through the riffs.
When I get to see the lyrics I realise my chilling sense of danger is well founded. The lyrics remind me of the numerous legends about the Mara in Swedish folk lore, drawing her power from the guilt of her victims. She is the shadow in the room, the sharp dagger of remorse that you avoid in daylight. The misdeeds you should not have done. The dead bodies you stepped on to get to where you are.
The ritual of Blodlust just goes deeper and deeper. There is no closing at the end, no cushioned return to reality. The downward spiral draws me deeper and deeper and ends in an altered state of consciousness, with a smell of earth, blood and decomposition.
Blodlust comes with no solution, no redemption. And why should it. This is raw second wave black metal at its best. Creative without deviating from the genre, channelling something real and honest from the band and from the deep underground. This album will not disappoint anyone who appreciates raw black metal. For some it might open their minds to a new path. by Ask den Hängde
8/10 To Greatness and Glory!
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