Nordvargr – Daath (Album – Cyclic Law)
Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, industrial.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl, Cassette.
Background/Info: Henrik Nordvargr Björkk released this Nordvargr-opus by the end of 2019. The title refers ‘to the false sephira which also can be interpreted as the great abyss that needs to be crossed in order to attain higher knowledge’. “Daath” features eight tracks. Notice by the way the cassette format has been released on Cloister Recordings.
Content: The previous full length “Metempsychosis” –which was also released by Cyclic Law, was according to me one of the best works in the impressive Nordvargr discography. The artist moves on the same path, mixing dark-ambient, cinematic and industrial influences together. The vocals –which are more a kind of low resonating growls, are once again very present at this new opus. Sound-wise the tracks are filled with a powerful sound arsenal featuring metallic percussion sounds and other industrial rhythmics, overwhelming sound waves and also dark, dreamy passages.
+ + + : “Daath” sounds in the prolongation of the previous album, but it maybe moves a step further. The tracks have something heavy and overwhelming while the disturbing vocals accentuate the nightmarish sensation when listening to this work. Nordvargr leads the listener into torment and this by the creation of monstrous sounds and heavy industrial noises.
– – – : Norvargr can’t take me by surprise, but I don’t care as the albums are getting better and better.
Conclusion: This is one more brilliant exposure of this artist’s taste for dark music. Nordvargr is not only a prolific project, but it also remains a true reference in its style.
Best songs: “The Horsemen Ride Out On Foaming Steeds”, “Inner Monarch Awakened”, “Invocation Of The Unseen”, “As King, As Queen – When Kingdom Collide”.
Rate: (8½).
Artist: www.nordvargr.com / www.facebook.com/hnordvarg
Label: www.cycliclaw.com / www.facebook.com/cycliclaw
About Nordvargr
Henrik Nordvargr Björkk is a Swedish artist active since the early 1990s under multiple monikers, most notably the EBM act Pouppée Fabrikk, the ritual-industrial group MZ.412 and the solo dark-ambient/industrial project Nordvargr. Side-Line reviewed his “The Secret Barbarous Names” album and interviewed him in 2017 under the title ‘My Brain Is Wired’. His prior Nordvargr full-length, “Metempsychosis”, was reviewed in 2018 as one of the best entries in his catalogue, and the project continued on the same label with “Resignation IV” in 2025. “Daath” sits between those two releases in the Nordvargr/Cyclic Law chronology.
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