This grand mythological apocalyptic event is a new beginning encased within a recreation of a forgotten, entirely unheard-of past life as Nynäshamn, Sweden-borne black metal act SVARTSYN haul over three decades of trying experience into the foreground for this tenth and bifurcated full-length album. The enduring spirit of black metal by the hand of the artist persists within ‘Vortex of the Destroyer‘ by design as a showcase for imposing, fully evolved new material as well as a recreation of unpublished material dating back to the band’s early 90’s impetus. There is both monstrous disarray and strengthened bond achieved within the most distant past and the horror of the present as we achieve a bookend to this very moment in the artist’s unflinching legacy.

Svartsyn formed under its original duo form, Chalice, back in 1991 wherein guitarist Ornias and drummer/vocalist Tormentor would produce an infamous pair of minor releases per a brief demo tape and a split demo tape with Illska before the band would reshape itself beyond 1993. From there the heavy Norwegian black metal influences wouldn’t fully dissipate as the new name sunk in but far more capable hands crafted ‘A Night Created by the Shadows‘ (1995) a demo tape that’d been green but ambitious, clearly taking the instrumentation of the medium even more seriously while applying a satisfying primitivity to their invention. The next ten years of the band’s history were essentially one “disaster” after another wherein four LPs and several other releases faced incessant issues with labels, poor recording conditions, and legal issues associated with those tribulations. Despite a number of incessant challenges these folks have always managed an above-average result, I think criticisms of their debut’s (‘The True Legend‘, 1998) production values are sound but there is a magic to that release which suits as a precursor to their incredible ‘…His Majesty‘ (2000) where the hollow production values and evolving rhythmic hand were both satisfyingly maniac in their cacophonic register.

Rather than cut through the entire discography I would suggest that it was the Agonia Records years of the band that’d caught my attention first and while I know that fans of ‘Timeless Reign‘ (2007) will balk at the exception here the hi-fi, almost death metallic ruin of ‘Wrath Upon the Earth‘ (2011) and ‘Black Testament‘ (2013) after it remain my favorite releases from the Svartsyn banner. In revisiting their discography I still found myself enamored with the inventive guitar stroke of each (re: the light hand of dissonance on the latter) and the different approach of each drummer employed. I’d touched upon some of these thoughts in brief review of ‘Requiem‘ back in 2020 where mentions of Armagedda and Funeral Mist felt well placed at the time. Again, there are no major disappointments within this band’s extensive discography for my own taste, each revealing its own adaptive path to an ‘old school’ black metal inspired locus.

While due diligence with Svartsyn‘s discography isn’t necessary for the average floater looking for convincing black metal traditions, you’ll find it here, it will be additionally enriching to know the complete path of the artist when approaching ‘Vortex of the Destroyer‘ as an album built from a session that included four new songs and six others which date back to the early 90’s via the Chalice days (1991-1993). That said if you’re familiar with the four songs (spanning two tapes) publicly documented online none of those are specifically recreated/re-recorded here in title so much as the zeitgeist, the menacing conviction, of earliest second wave Scandinavian black metal is believably evident in the final six pieces. This should not strike the existing fan with any sort of surprise as the artist has long maintained tradition alongside the depth of his skillful rhythm guitar work.

Sit and receive the knowledge of our demise. — A demolished pantheon, a skeletal steed-and-swordsman amidst a whorl of daemonic invaders greet the listener with a glacial blue vortex which almost appears as a cave from a distance. Rather than project the apocalypse as a sudden burst of energy (a nuclear detonation event) the mood is set by a chilling invasion, a slow-cast cessation via the unaccredited artwork. While the visual is striking and sets the exact right mood for the chilling menace illustrated within the contents of ‘Vortex of the Destroyer‘ the focus of Svartsyn forcefully points the senses toward the music and not the accoutrement, circumstances, or credits involved. Though these are not simplistic events, particularly the first four nowadays pieces, the drum performances are set brutally lucid and presented with great clarity to the point that I’d give a nod to the performer/programmer but drummer is credited per the given materials. This style of drumming acts as an amplifying cone, a pillar within the sound design which emphasizes the shared voice of the rhythm guitar and the command of the vocals by throttling beneath and around their shared assault. Cymbals might crash on a sky-level burst alongside the main rhythm guitar channel but the bulk of the drum presence explodes beneath and upward. There is no relief from this hammer, even when the mid-paced thrashing transitions of “The Prometheus of Dark Dreams” threaten to slow to a creep.

In passage beyond the fourth piece we are set within an unreal, hi-fi pit of reconstruction which takes late summer 1992 writ pieces and exacts them with a no-nonsense approach and a biting, vengeful snarl. Rather than view these early 90’s concieved pieces as bonus tracks or separate business I’d more naturally receive the experience as two very different sides of Ornias‘ long-standing coin. Side A presents as the evolution of Svartsyn‘s primordial sound written for two guitars, some insane interplay making each piece its own island worthy of note-for-note study… and Side B offers a recreation of unheard of songs written at an early creative peak for black metal’s guitar interest. Our step into “The Black Temple” is markedly different in that it offers a simpler black metal groove and (more notably) a lack of a the second rhythm guitar’s contra-conversational presence. The fidelity of the song hasn’t been drastically altered from the dynamic of the previous four pieces and in this way this is not a dumbed-downgrade to another sonic era, but instead a more direct step towards Norwegian black metal motivations and the awe for the most possessed early days in adoration of (but not limited to) Mayhem and adjacency to The Black‘s (Sweden) debut ‘The Priest of Satan‘.

The “mid-paced” nature of certain pieces on the second half of the LP might briefly compare in shape and sound to a certain era of Immortal (Inquisition, even?) or better yet Throne of Ahaz‘ first demo + parts of ‘Nifelheim‘ and not for the sake of the vocals (which are inventive throughout) but for the “epic” and sometimes erratically thrashed focus of songs like “Utter Northern Darkness” later on. Otherwise “Seraphims Torn Apart” is probably the one composition where I’d felt that particular passage of the torch from 80’s tuned ears creating meaner music in the early 90’s, that bounding groove set next to the more finessed melodic strikes of the verses represents a unique era for Swedish black metal in particular, or, at least bears a calling card that guitarists like Ornias helped to define. Because I’d found the re-recordings of ‘The True Legend‘ transformative of the material I can only muse upon what the original versions of these songs might’ve amounted to under completely limited resources and knowledge. Taking a look at the scaling leads that introduce “Agents of the Lightbearers” I will say that these were not entirely unreasonable feats for Chalice‘s demo era though considerations for tempo and transition have likely been made per the skill level at hand today.

Everything appears relative when given due attention, traced back to foundation. As an undying fan of Swedish black metal’s most classic era the experience of hearing a reclamation of that era’s spiritus in fully immersive glowing skeletal possession today is a thrilling liquification of the senses, a true thrashing given by the guitarist in particular on the step through. Emphasizing the artist’s grasp of the old ways is certain to rally the troops as the band should be much better known per the last fifteen or so years… but I will say the new pieces Svartsyn lead with here (especially “The Prometheus of Dark Dreams”) are a different type of obsession where we feel the years between even if their obsidian energies are consistent in their strafing through time. The render, aesthetic, and handling of each set of compositions in parity of atmosphere bears no particular fault, while this might not be the peak-thus-far for my fandom for the band (‘…His Majesty‘ and ‘Black Testament‘ needled into me first) it is however assuredly -the- prime gateway to the unknown gloria of this band’s often unheard-of legacy. A high recommendation.

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