Dødheimsgard – Black Medium Current (Review)

This is the sixth album from avant-garde black metal band Dødheimsgard.

Black Medium Current contains 70 minutes of material, which is, I confess, a rather bland way of introducing such a superlative record. It’s hard to know where to start with an album like this though, as there’s just so much to explore here, and it’s all so very high in quality.

Black Medium Current is a multifaceted and layered affair. Dødheimsgard push the boundaries of their music to the limits, well beyond its black metal core, making for a fascinating and enthralling record. Words such as weird, quirky, etc. are all relevant here, but feel like an injustice to the depth of immersion and emotive music that Dødheimsgard have produced. Suffice to say that Black Medium Current is atypical and non-standard, in a variety of wonderfully idiosyncratic ways. This is a very individual record. In its entirety it sounds very little like anything else out there, which in itself is unusual, but to also have it delivered at such a high level of accomplishment and quality, that makes it all the more unusual.

This is an album that doesn’t shy away from avant-garde experimentation, (to put it mildly), and it succeeds wildly in its creative vision for extreme metal. Black Medium Current has a progressive heart, and takes in such a range of influences and ideas that the entire album offers the listener an exceptional experience. The key thing, of course, is that everything that Dødheimsgard try is realised and executed very well. Without this, the album would be a disjointed mess, but it very much is not; this is a band with all of the knowledge and experience to make good on their impressive ambitions.

Of course, how much you get out of this record depends on how wide-ranging your musical tastes can be. Despite the occasional use of familiar blackened elements, a traditional black metal album this is not. If, however, you are looking for a musical work of art with a blackened base that takes you on a sonic adventure, then Dødheimsgard have crafted the experience for you. Black Medium Current is highly emotive and unfolds like a dream.

Essential listening for any fan of diverse and engaging extreme metal.