An awakening of the artist’s long-wandering muse in eight shards of reflective light this debut full-length album from Icelandic black metal quartet VAFURLOGI took at least a decade to fully conceive, about two years to compose, and a few more to finalize allowing plenty of time for a deeper personage to develop behind in the scenes. This finds ‘Í vökulli áþján‘ smartly up to par with the quality and distinction of the main composer’s body of work developed over as much (or more) time, allowing for a stunningly well-formed debut statement rippling with both unique and nostalgic qualities enough to keep it boiling in mind for some time.

The earliest practical germinations of Vafurlogi were probably around ~2007 as Þórir Garðarsson‘s guitar-built compositions for Svartidauði began to overflow into an ulterior voice, a shard of interest that didn’t fit the destructive magick of his then barely launched yet now infamous band. You should also note that his other even more prominent band Sinmara found its initial rooting in precursory form (as Chao) around that time. The artist’s interests in the abstraction of orthodox black metal inspired work became two-pronged focus and a series of pillars were built over the next decade as pieces began to filter into the bank of this personal side project. This’d eventually become a folder where 90’s and early 2000’s black metal’s restless-yet-tuneful aspect bled and festered for years ’til the distinction of more directly set songcraft and statement gathered defining trait.

And here is where our route to ‘Í vökulli áþján‘ becomes circuitous as this debut LP comes from a songwriting session circa 2018-2020 separate from the albums worth of songs developed into personae from 2007-2018. In essence we are getting the sophomore album first and at some point earlier compositions will surface as the second in line. For those of us still mourning Svartidauði their amicable divorce still has some additional blows of trauma to land here as we discover their momentum beyond 2018 included two albums worth of unfinished material yet some of this will eventually become part of Vafurlogi‘s output in the near future. Nonetheless the main topic today is positioning this material in context of where Garðarsson‘s mind sparked into this particular album’s composition (as bassist, guitarist, and vocalist) and the ways it both fits into his greater body of work. Of course the real context of preliminary drafts isn’t available, we are getting a fully formed and finished draft and an overall remarkable release which naturally skips any tentative steps in their process.

From my point of view the triumphal tone and melodic black metal influences feeding this record do well to temper the jagged, blustering accost which Garðarsson‘s work would often carry in earlier death-weighted Svartidauði works. Otherwise there is no other reasonable connection to make to his other projects beyond the always brilliant sense of space-outside-of-time found in the production which comes from Stephen Lockhart‘s Studio Emissary, a longtime collaborator. As we break into the reverb coiffed acoustic guitar drift which introduces “Reikul Vofa” I have to admit this always pings a certain era of Dissection in mind yet the 8+ minute song develops quite a different stroke to its rhythms as the anticipation builds toward its first verse. The rhythm section here, graced with the furious step of drummer Ragnar Sverrisson (Helfró, ex-Beneath) is well equipped with the ability to stride, scatter, and pulse within quick-turning rhythmic changes which highlight this drawn out opening salvo as the bass guitar lines appear to crisscross beneath the vibrance of the main rhythm guitar line driving the piece. Dual rhythmic guitar arrangements are immediately sophisticated offering their challenge in hyper-constructed melodic ravines rather than the corruptions of fluidity found in say, earlier Sinmara. While the eruptive dramatism available to this song is not the full directive, or, voice of this record it not only bodes well as it develops but begins to suggest the blend of “unusual” chord shapes married with a strong melodic voice.

Much as that opener might feel as if it is the big reveal here it provides more of a soar over the landscape meant to foreshadow where this album might better fit this expectation of easier access to the melodic voice of the artist. It shouldn’t hit you that this Vafurlogi is a very different thing, likely inspired by far more than black metal over the years, ’til the main guitar progressions of “Viðjar Holdsins” give us a verifiable hook and one that I’d suggest might intend a Norse folken quality at its root but fires off a bit like a late 80’s post-hardcore riff. Regardless of your own rhythmic associations it sticks in mind immediately as a first spike of interest which steps outside of what’d been otherwise expected from Garðarsson. From there those two observations cross the eyes in a brilliant way as “Helgrindur” hits almost directly upon the vibe of Enslaved‘s ‘Below the Lights‘ era but from their own perspective, making good use of dissonantly wrung chords to sway between these movements with both sinister and spirited motion. This was not the first moment to pique my ear to their approach but perhaps the moment where I’d felt the momentum of this album’s somewhat eclectic and impressive layers reach a point of fluxion that’d set the experience apart from any expectations I’d had going in.

With vocals presented in gusting layers and guitars set to empyrean layers of loft the real biting electricity of this production is arguably its lead guitar driven melodicism and the folken-stepped dance of the rhythms which surround it. This is where the triumphal, reaching aspect of Vafurlogi begins to gather in effect having lead us through at least a few of the opening pieces on Side A ’til the apex of “Dreyrrauði” presents a mostly complete arc at the core of its phrasing. What sets this apart from say, Windir (or even Sacramentum) is a willingness to break the level of focus applied to any given rhythm developed and change direction or directive entirely. Even the most focused melodic black metal piece (see: “Hvíldarsálmur”) eventually becomes restless and looks for a variety of paths away from a too-direct route, eventually pooling the venom of the vocals for the sake of landing somewhere beyond thruster paced flood. For some this will read as modernist thought applied to composition and to others it’ll be obstructive to the plain readability associated with a lot of mid-90’s black metal structuring. Granted, I considered this exactly one time before simply enjoying the erratic flow of this record since the blustering, vibrant quality of these actions are remarkable regardless of how extensive any analysis of form could get.

The ghastly, volatile presence of the vocals and the whipping tendency of the tempo map create a diabolically sombre wind as the stretch of the full listen expands into the second half, though I’m not sure there is any real telegraph as to where the overall experience will land ’til the exceptional bookend provided by “Duftið Eitt” hits and completes the greater thought. Though we are still being drip-fed new elements and techniques from the artists long-developed arsenal in this second half there were increasingly fewer points of ear-spiking interest as those sixth and seventh pieces hit. On the other hand while there are fewer ‘hooks’ or bits of spectacle in the tank at this point as a fan of melodic black metal a song like “Úr Iðramyrkri” of course entertains to no end per the immersive whorl it creates. In this sense the major impression is one of tuneful value with some extra-sensory ideas applied but also a melodic black metal album at is default core.

Granted, one pass through ‘Í vökulli áþján‘ is of course not enough to have divined its methods, its purposes, and intricacies but there should be big enough moments channeled throughout that’ll inspire deeper listening. While I do think parts of the second half will lose the most impatient-eared folks out there the whole of the experience only ripens in its vigorous application when returned to as I’d found there were a handful pieces which outright warranted one full listen after another; To properly evaluate this album I’d probably need to get a decent translation of the lyrics but otherwise the general curation, quality of statement, and greater resonance of the experience weighed against how often I’d returned for yet another spin already has me leaning toward a very high recommendation.

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