Formed in Płock, in the Masovia region of Poland in 2012, Varnheim released their eponymously-titled album in 2019 and followed it up with their sophomore effort (Aura) three years later. Now signed to the Godz Ov War label (the Litmus Test of all that’s good and heavy), the band are now primed and ready to take on the world with their third album Void. It’s an album of Nietzschean proportions that finds the band gazing into the beckoning void and returning with four songs that question the very meaning of life.
With each track comprising Void ranging from nine to twelve minutes in length, things tend to veer towards the epic and it is an elongated form Varnheim put to good use. The band create evocative soundscapes that resonate with you on some deep, ancient, primordial level, and it is best exemplified by the introduction to opening track ‘Vengeance’. It’s dark and discombobulating and draws the listener towards it like matter to a black hole, and it means that when the band kick in at around the two-minute mark it is with the force of lightning cracking a Nordic sky. Unlike many black metal bands, Varnheim don’t feel the need to scrawl their sound on every surface; there’s plenty of space between the riffs and that helps them create a sound that is far bigger than their constituent parts.
Varnheim are four shadowy characters (although readers might recognise three of the members who also play in blackened death band Baalberith) who tend to shun the spotlight; the photograph in the accompanying booklet presents the band in silhouette and this has the benefit of bringing the music to the fore. It’s an atmospheric, cinematic sound that the band create and one which places strong images in the mind’s eye, thus the likes of ‘Inwards’ become three-dimensional, great hulking sonic structures built in the worship of some strange deity. The addition of trumpet on two tracks rather took me by surprise, but it is a decision that really works and adds interesting textures to the songs.
Each of these four tracks has a unique identity, yet they are also inextricably linked by an invisible thread and that makes Void an album best consumed in one sitting. While it is perfectly feasible to dip in and out and enjoy these songs individually, it is best enjoyed whole to fully appreciate its ebb and flow, the recurring themes and motifs. Like wheels within wheels, Void constantly signposts what has been and what is to come and as such it has the feel of a concept album which finds Varnheim delving deep into the void and bringing back all sorts of unearthly delights.
- Void is released via Godz Ov War Productions and is available now (from here).
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Track List:
- Vengeance
- Onwards
- Inwards
- Downwards
