Artist: Jumalhämärä
Country: Finland
Label: Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions
Formats: CD
Year: 2010
‘Progression’ is a dirty word in combination with black metal. Bands like Satyricon have already struggled (unsuccessfully) with it. The art lies in combining primitive aesthetics and innovative elements. Not denying the genre’s origins is more important here than ingenuity, but the art of combining them correctly indicates the ultimate craftsmanship.
It was certain works like Mayhem’s ‘Ordo Ad Chao’ and works by bands like Deathspell Omega that refloated the stalled genre. This Finnish Jumalhämärä can be placed in this same list without further ado. Resignaatio is the first proper album but the band does not seem to lack experience. The material on offer manages to be quite impressive in its bizarreness. Where black metal seemed to die a slow, chilly death sometime in the early part of the last decade, the genre is showing its ability to renew and enrich itself.
The resonant and dissonant riffs are ominously woven into a churning ocean of almost nauseating hypnosis. The rumbling drums and the screaming vocals add just that little bit extra and seem to have sprung from the diseased brain of a psychiatric patient. The contrast between the subdued ritualistic, acoustic passages and the maniacal excesses could hardly be greater. Influences from outside black metal are easy to detect but these provide the right touches without getting bogged down in babbling post-rock or other ‘artyfarty’ drivel.
‘Resignaatio’ is an album that needs to be experienced in its entirety in order to strike the right chord with the listener. Jumalhämärä deliberately stays miles away from ‘Satanic’ bands like Watain but, exactly in this way, easily manages to evoke a much nastier atmosphere than with any devilish flirtation.
