En Hymne Til Dauden (Self Released)

 Black Metal from the trollish mountains and freezing landscapes of Norway is what this one man band, proudly, delivers with his music. This version of “En Hymne Til Dauden” I’ve got in my hands, is, in fact a re-release (re-recorded in august 2005) of its demo 2004 which were completely sold out, but fortunately, Nordmann (Skaur mastermind), decide to give this demo a second chance (following the successful first one), after releasing its compilation demo “Skaur/NordMann - Nord Norsk SvartMetall” released in 2005… This is an impressive and quite complex work, it consist of just one track, clocked at 17 minutes, separated in four untitled chapters. “En Hymne Til Dauden” (“A Hymn to Death” translated) is a conceptual work; a story about a man’s last journey from life to Hell … Musically the sound of Skaur could be easily compared with the sound of early Burzum, especially in the guitar work, with simple, powerful and raw riffs adding a melancholic and depressive mood (…as the story requires) but the whole music of Skaur is quite more complex than Burzum in its structures. With several ad-hoc effects (rain sound, howling wolves, etc), some clean guitar passages and even some clean voices, Skaur expands it sound in some multidimensional way, but never renouncing to its Black Metal roots, the voices here are the constant reaffirmation of its commitment with the dark side; those are absolutely raw, grim, ripping and undercooked blackish shrieks… in the way it should. “En Hymne Til Dauden” is one of the most impressive demos I have heard in a while. This band brings a fresh- air puff to the traditional sounding Black Metal with a high quality, but still raw as hell, style. I wouldn’t be surprised if Skaur becomes a “cult” underground Black Metal band in short time… This demo is limited to 100 hand numbered copies, so I strongly suggest you to get your copy as soon as you can… or you will regret… believe me. (AP)