Friday, March 7, 2014

Ved Buens Ende - "Written in Waters" [1995]

Artist: Ved Buens Ende
Title: Written in Waters
Genre: Post-Black Metal
Country: Norway
Year:1995

Track List:
  1. I Sang for the Swans
  2. You, That May Wither
  3. It's Magic
  4. Den Saakaldte
  5. Carrier of Wounds
  6. Coiled in Wings
  7. Autumn Leaves
  8. Remembrance of Things Past
  9. To Swarm Deserted Away
Speaking of avant-gardge metal - here's a band which was already mentioned on my blog several times. Ved Buens Ende were arguably the first band to play what's now called "post-black metal", and their only full-length release sounds very innovative and unusual even today. The Wikipedia article on "Written in Waters" describes it quite accurately:

"The album is unique and unusual. It incorporates many elements from various music forms (for example the whole song Autumn Leaves is without distorted guitars nor any grunted vocals), from usual Norwegian Black Metal (like at the end of Coiled in Wings) to jazz-inspired and dissonant riffs. Vocals on this album are mournful and sad by Carl-Michael Eide's crooning (accompanied by Kristine Stensrud) which makes a part of the album's uniqueness. As usual Eide's lyrics are rather unconventional and apparently deal with fantasy and dream. Whenever Vicotnik appears on vocals, his style of strident shrieks is just as much original for the time...

William York of AllMusic wrote, "Ved Buens Ende's sole full-length, Written in Waters, is an album of esoteric, experimental black metal that, years after its release, still sounds like nothing else...""

For me, the general mood and atmosphere of this album is more reminiscent of the 90's death/doom metal than Norwegian black metal. "Written in Waters" is a masterpiece and another great example of Norwegian avant-garde metal of the mid-90s (along with early In The Woods and Fleurety). For some reason, no other country and time period has had so many metal bands with this unique kind of sound.

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