Werewolf Of Wysteria

Vargsang is a solo project from Graven, also called Vargsang, funnily enough. Vargsang plays unapologetically raw, old-school black metal, and as is the case with so many artists of this ilk, he clearly likes Darkthrone. Quite a bit in fact. Aside from being a match for Nocturno Culto vocally, the music of Werewolf Of Wysteria is pretty much a cross between all three albums of Darkthrone's seminal “trilogy”. And Death Calls From Beyond falls between the freezing melodies of Transilvanian Hunger and the Hellhammer-esque riffage of A Blaze In The Northern Sky, while Night Of The Forlorn Creature sounds like an outtake from Under A Funeral Moon, aside from a slightly embarrassing spoken passage. The production isn't quite as ghastly as these three classics, mind, with the instruments all being fairly clear within the sonic sludge. Lack of originality aside, Vargsang is somewhat a welcome proposition. This is the music Darkthrone aren't making anymore, and close your eyes and this could very easily be an unreleased follow-up to Panzerfaust. The man is a talented songwriter, firing off stacks of riffs that lesser musicians wish they could write. In a time when black metal has flown off in so many different directions, from folk to symphonic to depressive to whatever the hell Blut Aus Nord are, we somehow need people like Vargsang. Not that I'm some sort of purist, but I have massive respect for someone who can make music which is an unabashed throwback to the early Norwegian scene and make it sound good without ever coming off as contrived or cynical. As is somewhat typical for this sort of thing, Werewolf Of Wysteria contains little variation between its' 10 tracks. There's nary a pretty acoustic bit or a dash of symphonic pomp to be found here. Every song alternates between full force blasting, a slightly slower, punkier section, and slow to mid-paced Celtic Frost riffing. Luckily, Vargsang knows that this sort of thing can get tiresome. The album is just the right length, at just over forty minutes, and only one song runs over the five-minute mark. It's certainly not intended to challenge the listener or change the landscape of black metal. It's a high quality slab of old-school black metal that fans of this sort of thing should lap up. It's all been done before, of course, and this is why Werewolf Of Wysteria won't be replacing A Blaze In The Northern Sky in mine, or anyone else's black metal favorites. But it's well written, well played, and the guitars are suitably rust-caked. In a sense, Vargsang is doing for black metal what Children Of Bodom and Kalmah are doing for melodeath. A quick fix of music that is meant to elicit no higher response from the listener than a raising of the horns and a twinging of the neck muscle. And as a bonus, it probably goes down a storm live. Asking anything more of it would be asking it to be something it's not.