Artist: Gam
Country: Denmark
Label: Résilience
Formats: CD EP
Year: 2025
After Gam’s amazing 2022 ‘Hvisken Fra Skyggernes Vrå’-demo and the following full-length album, ‘Alt Hans Væsen’, from 2023, that for me came out of left field, I was eagerly awaiting some new sign of life. And honestly, I was a bit afraid of missing out on it, because this rather mysterious Danish band has a tendency to find small and obscure labels for their equally obscure Black Metal art. But, although I didn’t miss out on it, they found a small and obscure French label called Résilience to release this new EP, ‘Valravnen’.
Compared to the long player from two years ago, the sound on this EP is a bit more dense and overall heavier, giving the music a more significant powerful character. Whether it only appears that way due to the somewhat altered sound or not, ‘Valravnen’ at least feels much more riff based and leans much less on atmosphere. Especially the last song, this EP’s title track, that is very reminiscent of the classic first three Gorgoroth albums, has a rather strong traditional Black Metal tradition. But even that track, as well as the strong ‘Natten Til Skt. Jorgens Dag’ does have a clear nod to the more Folkish Black Metal bands from the Norwegian second wave of Black Metal. I obviously don’t know about the band’s inspiration, but I would be surprised if they wouldn’t mention stuff like that massively overlooked Kvist album as well as the first Taake record.
As a whole, ‘Valravnen’ is very much on par with the Folk/Viking Metal scene from many moons ago, yet Gam doesn’t forget their Black Metal roots and makes sure to keep their music beefy enough to prevent it slip away in Finntroll-like territories. That shows the band’s impressive capabilities, not only in this tricky exercise of meticulously balancing their music, but, again, also in their overall sense for song writing. The dynamics are stunning and the riffs are as memorable as you can possibly wish for. The updated sound might take a bit of time to get used to, as some of the slightly more mellow atmosphere got lost in the overwhelmingly heavier approach. But, as a whole, ‘Valravnen’ might be even more than you have wished for.
With a great sense of melodicism and being able to craft those melancholic and folky riffs, Gam is a band to really keep an eye on. Whether intentional or not, the band is still firmly based in the underground scene, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this opens up more doors.
