Search - Trelldom :: Til Minne

Raw black metal becoming atmospheric

Corneille | Canada | 11/09/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's difficult to approach any of Mr Espedal projects without being influenced by his dark persona : Gaahl. But, I see this like a very personal album, almost introspective. On first listen, I found it very simple, somewhat monotone, but it remains haunting. Gaahl vocals, which I appreciate much because of his dark sinister incantations as of his awesome screechs, are displayed in a wide palette of styles on this recording. Sometimes, very complicated and layered music needs time to grow on you. In the case of Til Minne it is the simplicity, the monotony that grows on further listens to become a mesmerizing, menacing atmosphere evoking the grey skies on the edge of a snow storm. Each of the songs has a culminating drop of beauty that vanishes and never reappear. So, to hear more of it, you must hear the whole song again. The stunning piece is the towering yet very monotone Steg. Strangely, this song ends with a echoing hardanger fiddle ... which develop in a genuine norsk hardingfele folk tune. This last one ends with eerie Gaahl vocals. I must say I like it a lot better than Gorgoroth. Not groundbreaking at all, not astounding or whatever. Simple, raw, and sincere music, that it is."

Quality stuff

Amy | outer space | 03/19/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have copies of all three Trelldom albums and what is most striking is the extent to which each has its own sound and personality. Parts of Til Minne sound almost like a more musically mature version of things on Til Evighet; none of it resembles Til Et Annet (which I consider an incredibly beautiful album) much, but really it is its own entity. The production here is quite crisp. The vocals might be slightly less varied than on Til Et Annet (there is no clean singing to be found here) but still have a lot of variety, with some layering here and there and spoken parts. The pace is more along the lines of Til Evighet, faster and more energetic than Til et Annet, but the vocals are much better and really showcase how much Gaahl's vocals have improved over the years. As with Til Evighet, there are some songs in English but most are in Norwegian.



The guitars sound really great, as does the musicianship in general. I like every song on here, though the repetitie middle section of "Fra mitt Gamle" irritates me slightly. One of my favorite track is "From this Past," which has some good riffs and tempo changes, though the real standout track on the album is "Steg," lasting more than ten minutes, with crazy, fast, claustrophobia-inducing drum beats and a slower, more monotonous guitar part; the song sounds simultaneously fast and slow. Two minutes in, some lyrics are spoken over the same stuff. It probably sounds boring as hell in writing but is strangely compelling and hypnotic. About eight (!) minutes in the guitars finally break into a different riff and makes it seem worthwhile to hae listened to the song the whole way through; it even strikes me as being too short. This fades into the last track, "Eg Reiste i Minnet," which is a strange yet fitting outro with violins.



Though I like the second half of the album better than the first half, I really can't say anything bad about this. One of the best albums to come out in 2007."