Artist: Arjen
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Label: Self-released
Formats: Digital
Year: 2025
While Izrod released a record and an EP fairly recently and new material by Obskuritatem and Sulphuric Night is supposed to be imminent, the last few years have been somewhat quiet regarding releases from the Black Plague Circle out of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For Arjen, composed of prominent Black Plague Circle member H.P., the last release was 2022’s full-length ‘Lice čovjeka koji je rekao Ne’. So while ‘Konce Iznad Mene đavo Drži’ isn’t exactly new material, it certainly is a welcome break of radio silence.
Over the years, the Black Metal of Arjen has been driven into an increasingly more dissonant and atonal direction, and ‘Lice čovjeka koji je rekao Ne’ featured plenty of virtuose solos. ‘Konce Iznad Mene đavo Drži’ however takes us back to more bareboned and traditional beginnings, as it features forgotten songs recorded between 2013 and 2016. ‘Iz Mraka U Mrak’ for instance is featured as a demo version of a track that ended up on the sophomore album ‘Kad Se Slika Iskrivi Dovoljno’. At that time, the music was more stripped down and ritualistic, combining a blend between Norwegian, French and Polish Black Metal with an slight unsettling undertone and eerie strumming. The slightly out-of-the-box twist in direction on the most recent album can be heard back sporadically, for instance in the atmospheric and progressive break with rather good clean vocals, but the abundant leads of the most recent full-length are nowhere to be heard yet.
The following two tracks, ‘Opet Blatnim Putem Koračam’ and ‘Negdje Tu, Gdje Sunca Nema’ were previously released as a split with Eeuwig, which was released in 2017 as ‘Gateway To The Monolith Of Dreams’. At 4 and 5 minutes respectively, both tracks are shorter than the average Arjen track, and probably more traditional and straightforward as well. Still, the gnarly undertone is very much there, for instance in the more uptempo paced Opet Blatnim Putem Koračam’. ‘Negdje Tu, Gdje Sunca Nema’ initially is the opposite, featuring a much slower tempo and more emphasis on sorrowful riffing as the pace builds. Just momentarily, as the song is further enhanced with keyboards to add to the atmospheric emphasis.
While the first half of the tracks is certainly interesting, the material was already out there in one shape of form. The final three tracks are all unreleased and take us back furthest in time to 2013-2014. ‘Mrtvo Srce, a Još Kuca’ is a rather bareboned track with engrained melancholy and mournful strumming. It continues to highlight a more atmospheric side of the band. ‘Conspiracy Against the Human Race’ is a completely different track then, chugging away at a midtempo before a more melodic twist takes over. While more riff-centered than the other songs on the compilation, the more bareboned character fits with the journey back in time that we take on ‘Konce Iznad Mene đavo Drži’. The final track is ‘U ime Šejtana’, a raw and fast undertaking with overpowering drums and strong reverb on the vocals. A more traditional and pummeling affair, until the end quiets down in atmospheric strumming with hoarse vocal cries. And that pretty much sums up the tracks on ‘Konce Iznad Mene đavo Drži’, which offers an interesting glimpse in the past, where Arjen’s take on Black Metal was more atmosphere-driven and traditional than the dissonant beast it has become.
