Embodying your influences in something that throngs of bands have done ever since music was a thing from cover bands to emulating one orchestral score based on another. Metal is far from a stranger to it, and I’ve always found the most faithful retellings in black metal. The 90s have spawned music that’s all but legendary and revered in today’s scene, and it’s bands like Isgärde that are striving to keep those ancient veins alive. With his upcoming compilation, Isgärde combines two previous EPs for a cold winter blast of diverse black metal.
The whole of “Eowlandsvintr” is simply a combination of Isgärde’s EPs that were released in December of last year, and while they were two separate pieces at first they work incredibly well as one cohesive album that delivers one hell of a punch. Bringing together “Ölandsvinter” and “Ölandsvinter II”, the whole of this compilation shows off in one swift motion what this one-man is capable of despite only releasing one full-length outside of the material featured with “Eowlandsvintr” and it’s far from anything to scoff at. These ten songs bring together plenty of elements of classic black metal with even some folk bits making the final cut to make “Eowlandsvintr” sound reminiscent of combining some Dissection, some Isengard, and even some Borknagar into one piece that manages to use both hook-filled rhythms and decently complex musicianship to create an organic album that feels like it was destined to be brought together into one album. Too many bands get lost in trying to sound exactly like their influences, but Isgärde lays off that to allow the contents of “Eowlandsvintr” to stand proud as its own thing without relying on the work of others like a pair of crutches.
I’m not quite sure what it is with black metal having so many fucking quality one-man bands, but I love it and acts like Isgärde that keep the fantastic trend going for me. “Eowlandsvintr” is an album that embodies a lot of classic material while still maintaining its own form that allows itself to become its own thing, and that’s a something that I can’t get enough of no matter how many times I witness it.
“Eowlandsvintr” releases on March 19th!
LISTEN to “Ölandsvinter” on Bandcamp here, and “Ölandsvinter II” here.
LIKE Isgärde on Facebook here.
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