It’s a brand new year as I sit down to write this review, a new start, a new dawn, the sun is beaming through the window. Life, is it not something to love, to embrace, to cherish? Fuck that load of crap, same shit different year but that is good too as the darkness will come back before long and wipe the smug expressions off the face of the sheep when they realise all that is left is suffering and pain. This leads me on nicely to Vanhelga as they are the perfect solution to any semblance of joy. They are about tearing oneself to pieces “the darker side of reality, death and self-destruction in all its forms.” For that they deserve to be praised.
The origins of the group began in Sweden, where suicidal art is crafted with razor sharp precision, back in 2003. Since then they have produced several EP’ s, demo’s, splits and one full-length album ‘Mortem Illuminate Mea’ in 2009. I have dipped back into a few numbers on their Myspace (yes unbelievably it does exist) and have thought that numbers such as epic misery serenade ‘The End Of Reason’ sounded pretty good. The sole project of 145188 was certainly worth checking out. However he has for Host found a numerological cohort in the form of 1853 who, those of you with good knowledge of dark depression will realise is formerly from Lifelover. Obviously with that band, sadly like its innovator B, laid to rest it is natural that other members are going to look for new creative avenues for their music and if you loved Lifelover let me tell you chances are that Vanhelga on this album are going to leave you ecstatic.
Who does what I am not sure as there is little information really about this around and I have simply been informed that Johan Gabrielson (to give him full identity) has joined the outfit to “contribute to the Swedish melancholy and misery that is Vanhelga.” With the razor sharp guitar tones and sermon sounding vocals of opener ‘A Sinister Longing,’ this is not really that noticeable, we get a thoroughly proficient slice of Swedish darkness with cutting melodic thrust about it. However by ‘Lugn’ we certainly notice those life-loving nuances. A lone guitar fuzzes into life with a sound akin to recent Burzum and then comes that keyboard sound that was synonymous with that band I have mentioned probably far too much already. It’s tinged with sadness and regret but also quite uplifting as though someone has gone looking for death and is there to welcome its cold embrace. This instrumental is gorgeous and once heard will envelope you like a shroud. Rasping vocals are back for ‘Desperation’ they sound hungry looking to consume and the rampant sharp instrumentation bounds off slowing to a lamenting part and snarling back in, twisting and turning between the two paces and melding them together. Cold sampled voices add to things sending shivers down spines along with acoustic parts and this certainly delivers both despair and desperation with finesse.
The melody is the driving force here and it really does sparkle, the guitar work is drenched in it and sparkles and mesmerises as it unfolds and weaves away rapturously over passages of classical sounding keyboard and moody spoken word parts in native language. ‘Sorg’ at first adds a nice drifting sort of chill out part to the album with piano and clean singing taking it into a quirky tuneful number rife with spiky guitar sound and lush shoe-gazing melody. It’s very easy to lose yourself in its folds. ‘Pessimist’ is much faster with a full on strumming attack, deftly handled around the doomy gloomy keyboard parts. Sometimes as on this number you forget about the vocals which are not necessary to embellish the already prolific atmosphere. ‘Vilsen’ we are told on the band Facebook is about “the good things in life drug addiction in particularly.” There is that associated euphoria here and the song certainly fixes you up before the withdrawal follows courtesy of ‘Armageddon an electronic number with a persuasively gnawing and uncomfortable melody and hellish background screams about it.
If bleak and depressive atmospheres are something that bring a contradictory smile to your face, after this album has the requisite amount of spins to completely gel, you are going to have a shit eating grin spreading across your mush. Beautiful and barren in equal measures Host is a great album and one that really marked that horrible ‘festive period’ and laid to rest a typically shit year, marking time into another. Unfortunately it was released at the tail end of 2012 so it cannot get the accolade of being the first great album of unlucky 13. However I have a feeling it is going to get plenty more spins as it gets claws in and spreads contagion.
Happy fucking New Year!
(8/10 Pete Woods)
Leave a Reply