Vargsang - Throne of the Forgotten
Undercover Records
Black Metal
10 songs (46:37)
Release year: 2005
Reviewed by Aaron

One day, just recently, I was walking down the dirt-corroded inner-city streets of Manhattan at a late hour, looking to score. It’d been a few days since my last fix, I needed something new and I needed it now. Living off the last dregs of Craft’s Terror Propaganda for so long isn’t healthy, I’m sure.

So I grab my CD player for when the time comes, dump an overused copy of 1349’s Beyond the Apocalypse in it, and listen joylessly as I leave my filthy apartment, just itching for a new kick.

Turning into Black Metal Alley, all the usual scumbags jump out of some dumpsters, and, reeking of rotting garbage, shove the usual shit in my face, like I’ve never been here before. Mark, you think I’ve never listened to Transilvanian Hunger? What the hell is wrong with you? Put that away, gimme something new. Something big. No, no, don’t pull out Total Death. And it’ll be a cold day in Kenya before I buy any more Grand Belial’s Key from you, I’ve got all I need already, goddamnit. What, don’t you recognize me at all? Jesus, out of my way, out of my way, out of my way, I need something NEW. I don’t care if it SOUNDS like the old stuff, but I need something new… fresh… that I haven’t heard before.

After I finally finish shoving all those jerks away, I spot a reclusive-looking pusher at the end of the hall. He’s got a hat pulled low over his face, which lets only the tip of his leprously scabby nose poke out, and he’s wearing a long trench coat that he’s probably dirtying by sitting down on it. Looks like he’s taking a long snooze. Maybe he’s dead.

Dead or not, he still might have what I need, so I go over and shake him. He wakes up like I hit him in the face with a brick, and knows what I want immediately. I offer him a hand, and he takes it. Wordlessly, a copy of Vargsang’s Throne of the Forgotten appears in my hand, a band that I’ve never listened to, and as such, a kick that I’ve never been on. I’ll take it.

I’m walking home now, listening. First thoughts that come to my mind: “Whoah, riffs. A reliance on riffs over atmosphere… huh, this kick might not last as long… but still, awesome riffs. Very classic-Darkthrone sounding, but with more of a ‘foresty’ feel, more of an ‘atmosphere of contrasts,’ forests and tundras both at once.’ Deathyell of Extermination in the meantime is fueling me good, firing me up. Lots of riffs in this song and the strange manner in which they are changed continues to evoke Darkthrone, Craft, and early Pest, but not in a ‘worship’ sense… more of an aesthetic sense, a ‘painters using the same palette’ sort of way, if that makes any sense to you. I don’t care, this is providing quite the kick like I hoped it would. Maybe I won’t have to utterly wear out my copy of A Blaze in the Northern Sky till around December.

I got the best lift out of Night of the Impaled Whores, there’s real emotion in there to go with the excellent midpaced black-metal riffing and respectably solid drumming. This guy strikes me not as a Lord Byron-esque modern romantic like Malefic from Xasthur, or as a modern Nietzschean misanthrope like Wrest from Leviathan… but almost like a throwback modern iconoclast, like the guys from Drudkh, even though their music sounds so different, one being warm and inviting and the other harsh and unforgiving.

I do got to tell you, the initial kick wore off after a while, around Raped and Hanged. It just didn’t do anything for me after that point, just kinda drifted off and woke up during Epilogue. Not a good sign. And of course, this is nothing I’ve never heard before, I just like the way it was done here.

If you buy into Vargsang, you can get something out of it. I’m your pusher, I know what I’m saying. Trust me.

[Disclaimer: Metal Reviews does not officially endorse drugs.]

Killing Songs :
Deathyell of Extermination, Night of the Impaled Whores, The Forest of Freezing Shadows
Aaron quoted 73 / 100
Other albums by Vargsang that we have reviewed:
Vargsang - Werewolf Of Wysteria reviewed by James and quoted 83 / 100
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