Vörnir – Av Hädanfärd Krönt (Review)

This is the debut album by international black metal band Vörnir.

Brought to us by current/ex-members of Chaos Moon, Dagger Lust, Häxanu, Krieg, Triumvir Foul, Osgraef, Ringarë, Skáphe, Wormlust, and many, many, many more, Vörnir is a new band with a wealth of experience. All of which made me very interested to check out the 38 minutes of material on Av Hädanfärd Krönt.

Av Hädanfärd Krönt is an album of chaos, noise, and darkness. It is bound by an iron will of unbreakable discipline into five songs that explore the darkness in violently atmospheric ways.

Stylistically, a few different ingredients have gone into this music. There’s a foundation of grim blackened brutality, the sort that shares space with the black/death/war metal styles. Laced into this are the questing threads of eerie avant-garde dissonance, infecting the violence with otherworldly intricacy. The vocals are resolutely daemonic and rarely come even remotely close to sounding human. This alone would potentially be potent enough, but there’s also an aspect of Av Hädanfärd Krönt that exists in another plane of existence entirely, where its merciless qualities are corrupted by shadowy entities, giving rise to something that’s riven by unearthly energies and evocative textures.

There’s an ambient thread that provides tense atmosphere throughout Av Hädanfärd Krönt. This is mostly present when the music is at its most visceral and aggressive, allowing for worldbuilding to occur beyond the merely hostile. It occasionally also manifests as quieter moments throughout the album, adding a detailing and atmosphere that enhances the whole. Combined, it means that Av Hädanfärd Krönt offers the discerning listener something more than simple aggression; these songs combine punishing extremity with abyssal depth, making for music that’s worth returning to.

Vörnir have sent a spectral roar into the underworld, proudly staking their claim on this level of black metal’s Hellscape. With zealous fury they dominate everything around them, forcing it to submit to their malevolent designs. This is infernal work, and Av Hädanfärd Krönt is a paean to nightmare landscapes unknown. Vörnir’s work is worth exploring, if you are hardy enough of body and mind to survive its terrors.