Delivering a sound rich in old-school, pure Norwegian Black Metal atmosphere, is the debut album Satanic Inversion Of… from Avmakt, which captures the raw, primitive, early feel of Darkthrone and early-era Bathory melded with their own individual twist.
Avmakt – Satanic Inversion Of… (Peaceville Records)
Release: 30 August 2024
Words: Jools Green
Forming fairly recently, in 2020 and releasing a demo in 2021, the duo of Kristian Valbo drums, vocals and bass and Christoffer Bråthen guitars, vocals and bass have worked in the past with the likes of Aura Noir, Obliteration, and Condor, as well as playing in other bands covering a range of different genres since their early teenage years.
Black Metal is the genre that resonates the best for the duo, but without the imagery and psychodrama that is associated with many bands within the scene. Not that there is anything wrong with those aspects. Kristian and Christoffer just prefer the stripped-back musical concept that concentrates just on the sound and atmosphere it creates, ungoverned by any visual inputs, carefully underproduced, allowing them to create something that delivers a grim, sinister and icy mood.
The band name Avmakt means powerlessness, the sense of being overwhelmed and not able to have any influence, without choice, voice, or hope, reflecting their lyrical themes such as emptiness, desolation, and alienation.
Satanic Inversion Of… manifests as six sprawling tracks that span just over forty-four minutes. Opening with Ordinance, which echoes early Darkthrone and Emperor, it is rich with fuzzy hypnotic riffs, pounding drums and raw vocalisations alongside an engaging ebb and build, gradually developing more complexity and speed in increments as it progresses.
Released as a single back in July, Poison Reveal delivers an even faster, unrelenting drum delivery, filthy, fuzzy, school riffing with a subtle thrashy edge. With the vocals adding a cold musty black atmosphere, you get a brief classic Black Metal drop in the second half before resuming that former pace as it continues its journey to the close.
Versions of the next two pieces featured on the 2021 demo. Firstly, Sharpening Blades Of Cynicism, a monster of a track at ten minutes duration, initially a slow moody plodder, gathering pace as it progresses in substantial ebbs and builds, the acerbic vocals cutting swathes through the riffing. Every time it ebbs back, you think it will relinquish its hold on you. But it builds back stronger, faster and darker, and the final ebb is dark, doomy and bleak. A very dramatic finish.
The second track is Towing Oblivion. It is raw, brutal and furious from the offset with cutting acerbic vocals, though it does have variance. The pace ebbs and builds engagingly, but in the slower moments the raw brutality still remains constant. I love the slower segments. They have a bleak, dank atmosphere filled with foreboding.
Things take a dramatic turn with Charred, which has a superbly ominous blackened Doom aspect. Everything is very precise and crawling. The leadwork is eerie, haunting and dark. Then suddenly, midway at the arrival of the vocals, the pace ramps up to a hellish gallop, turning it into a pounding beast of a track.
The final piece is another monster just shy of the ten-minute mark, Doubt And The Void. Again opening with a blackened pounding Doom sound, the vocals are raw, protracted and rasping alongside Doom-influenced leads, giving a hugeamount of depth to this bleak, dark, but hugely engaging lamentation. Then, like its predecessor, midway through, it breaks out into a hellish Black rampage completed with thunderous drum blasts.
Satanic Inversion Of…is an intriguing and engaging listen. But the most important endorsement comes from the man himself, Darkthrone’s Fenriz, who, regarding this album, says, “Underground Metal the way it should sound returns to Kolbotn!”
Enough said!!
Satanic Inversion Of… will be available as a limited white vinyl, CD or digital download.
