review by: Mladen Škot

Time for more funeral black, this time from Faroe Islands. You probably know what to expect, or what to not expect: no riffs whatsoever. The compositions are entirely based on nuances and tempo changes. The drums are programmed, simplistic and barely audible, the vocals even more sparse, and, although they are mostly sharp screams, buried in the mix. The songs are infinitely long. But there's no guitar. It might sound like it, but in reality it's electric cello, and there are who knows how many layers of it.

The rest of the experience depends on how submissive you are. For some, the vibrations alone will evoke mental images of windy, rainy, cold island shores and long gazes into the horizon, the part where the sea meets the air. The changes in Vhernen's music aren't entirely predictable, as sometimes you'll hear an almost uplifting arrangement of harps or choir vocals. And sometimes... you'll be listening to wind and similar patterns for what seems to be almost decades. Good news is that if you are tone deaf you'll be able to comprehend the changes. Bad news is that there might not be enough of them.

We do understand that depression and melancholy can be a paralyzing thing, and Vhernen is not yet another boring band. But there is a feeling that, with the unique instruments employed here, the melancholy could have had a wider scope. As it is, Vhernen's effect on the listener mostly depends on the listener himself, and the things he brings in before the music even starts. (6/10)

review by: Roberto Martinelli

Let’s put it this way: Vhernen is such an essential band, and the music it makes is so extraordinary, that this writer actually looked into buying an electric harp for his own use.

Mladen’s generally got the right idea elshewhere, but don’t listen to him here. There are tons of compositions on Vhernen: The glacier-sized giant melodies waft, imbue you with their mass, and progress as sharply as a hail of icicles on your head.

Where Vhernen is in the great minority is that there is no synthesis in the instruments. The cello sounds amazing because it’s an actual (electric) cello, the harp sounds superb because it’s real (although you’d never guss there was anything resembling a harp on this record), and as a result, the droning, languid tones breathe and seethe in their deathly beauty. The drums are programmed, thin, and artificial, yes, but in the capacity of this project and the role the percussion plays, the in-the-background drums serve only as a placeholder to give the centerstage cello more energy and direction.

And funeral black / doom? Not really. Aside from the last monolith (track) on the album (a lengthy reprise of one of the strongest melodic themes on the record, played without drums or vocals) and the five minute interlude making up the fourth track (where the eternally shifting glacier imagery is at its peak) the drums keep it too lively, and the tempos and energy of the music make it overall a slow entry into the black metal canon. (Look for the latest Vhernen (re)release, the early recording collection The Funeral Era for some funeral vibes!)

Yes, no guitars. Bless Vhernen for that. Imagine, there are other instruments one can make music — even metal! — with. You won’t miss a thing. Bless Vhernen again for making the vocals buried. It’s perfect because it doesn’t get in the way of what the centerpiece is (the huge walls of darkly shimmering, classical-rooted, plodding trance melodies).

A good point of reference to this album would be Coldworld’s Melancolie2, specifically to the kind of sustained, slowly moving, melancholic melody that the two respective artists like, except Vhernen’s compositions are relatively less like songs and more like pieces, or movements of music. Like Coldworld, Vhernen’s big glacial reverberance doesn’t have much low end. Rather, it’s a humming, haunting tone that conjures up imagery of a primordial ice flow, making this project a uniquely massive yet relaxing experience.

The Faroe Islands... something magical is happening in that tiny semi-country with a total population of 44,000. They’ve got one of the best and most original heavy metal bands on the planet, Tyr, and they’ve also got one of the best and most original black metal projects on the planet, Vhernen. The S.Y.B.E.R.I.A. EP made this writer’s top list of 2006, and Vhernen would have made it in 2007, if we had listened. To make up for that in some way, The Funeral Era is on the 2009 list.

If you are a fan of the massive, droning, relaxed, sinister, or melancholic, and you dig classical music-influenced black metal, get all Vhernen, no question. This, the self-titled one, is the best... so far. (9.5/10)