Label: Trust No One Recordings
Origin: Västernorrland County, Sweden
Svartkonst is the one-man Black Metal project of Rickard Törnqvist. A seasoned extreme metal listener will immediately think of one-man project, Burzum, for comparison, but where Burzum plays as the old-school mafia soldier, Svartkonst is today’s acting boss.
One-man bands are relatively rare, but not entirely absent, in the Black Metal dimension. Of course, Varg Vikernes helped pioneer the movement in the early 90’s with Burzum, a Norwegian Black Metal project plagued with violence. Two years after founding this band, Vikernes was convicted of the murder of his former Mayhem bandmate, Euronymous. He was also found guilty of a series of stave church arsons, which have since become synonymous with Black Metal and aided in sending the genre into infamy. But lets get back to Vikernes’ project, Burzum. Low production quality and lengthy tracks dominate much of early Burzum (pre-prison days), while the project later evolved into atmospheric synth tracks and mood pieces.
Early Burzum is one-dimensional in its content and delivery and a bit stale almost three decades later, whereas Rickard Törnqvist’s Svartkonst is anything but. This one-man project is full-bodied, surprising, and full of epic twists that will age exquisitely and be savored for years to come.
In Svartkonst’s debut album, Devil’s Blood, Törnqvist masterfully commands traditional elements of Black Metal. The pace and delivery are brilliantly varied. Where a lot of Black Metal bands fall easy victim to four minutes of pummeling, albeit uninspired, blast-beating, Svartkonst refreshingly achieves a satisfying blend of intensity and relief. Törnqvist’s vocals are straight out of the basements and alleys of early 90’s Oslo, but the vicious drumming and piercing guitars have graduated to more sophisticated levels of composition. The aptly named Devil’s Blood channels inspiration from the work of Swedish Black Metal titans Watain, and absolutely draws extreme metal blood.
Two years later, Svartkonst (Swedish for “Black Art”) triumphantly return with this outing, Black Waves. This album is a 40 minute magic carpet ride on a bed of nails. Leading singles “I Am The Void” and “Death Magic” are confident, violent pieces that whet the headbanger’s audible appetite for more. “Death Magic” utilizes a vocal reverb that presents Törnqvist as Satan himself, dictating angry sermons through deep, echoing caverns. “World Ablaze” and “Ruins of Splendor” captivate as soaring Black Metal tracks by switching gears with ease, slowing the pace and ending with slow-motion, head-on collisions.
Standout track, “Stray in the Dark,” is heavier than the collected masses of the planets it soars beyond. Elements of Gatecreeper’s “stadium death metal” sound are prolific, with tantalizingly slow and chunky power chords of evil cranking the volume knob to its limit.
"Stray in the Dark" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw-NciuXaDo
Black Waves marks a step forward in Svartkonst’s repertoire and in the Satanic catalog of Scandinavian Black Metal. Weaving the minor keys of old with Törnqvist’s unparalleled murderous vocals, modern production levels and razor sharp instrumental work put Black Waves in esteemed company. Just as Törnqvist’s black waves roll over the “withering flowers” of the title track, Black Waves decimates once-solid releases that have since decayed behind bars.
FFO: Watain, Gatecreeper, Dark Funeral, Emperor