Artist: Ingwald
Country: Russia
Label: Jems Label
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2025
Ingwald is one of the musical vessels of Waldsarg, the person who is also behind Vidarr, with which he releases his debut demo, simply titled ‘Demo 1’, through the USA-based Jems Label. You could argue whether releasing a demo tape in only 10 copies is really something useful, in the end, every band can dub 10 tapes themselves. The whole point of having a label is having your music produced in a reasonable amount of copies and spread through its distribution channels and regular customers, so to me this feels a bit silly, but… let’s not let this distract us too much from what this is really about: the music.
Although possibly equally as raw as Vidarr, compared to that other band, Ingwald is definitely different business. No Ildjarn references or drunken sailors here. Despite the fun listen that Vidarr’s first demo was, Ingwald feels far more serious. First of all, the music on ‘Demo 1’ is very riff-driven and has a clear resemblance to the Burzum/Forgotten Woods-kind of riffing. Yet, compared to these Norwegian masters of melancholic Black Metal, Ingwald adds a bit more dynamics in terms of varying speed, mainly in the drums and some interesting guitar leads. Consequently, the overall listening experience comes down to the feeling something very familiar without really jumping the rip-off train.
Yet, even Beethoven in the very last days before his death would have heard that Waldsarg is a true Burzum fan – and that’s even without having heard the closing Burzum cover. It is all poured in a rather clear yet raw-at-the-edges production of which the authenticity of the music definitely benefits from. Speaking of which, I am rather sure that Ingwald’s cover of ‘Spell Of Destruction’ was recorded at some other time and place as it clearly has a totally different and more muffled sound compared to the other tracks. That, by the way, doesn’t hurt at all and even somewhat adds to the overall “old demo” feeling.
So, mainly, if you have share Waldsarg’s unquenchable thirst of these repeating melancholic and moody riffs and these simple yet captivating melodies, ‘Demo 1’ is definitely worth checking out.
Hello! Thanks for review! Im the creator of Ingwald, so this is really cool that someone found my demo and reviewed it!
You told about only 10 cassettes, but it is my mistake because when i scanned this cover I wrote on it that there is only 10 copies. For real it’s not, I just did a mistake ):