apanthropy

Ildganger
Wanderer of Fiery Planes
Black Gangrene Productions
Released: 2/8/23
Version Reviewed: 12″ LP, black. Limited edition of 250 copies.

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A1 – Tangible Dreamside Darkness
A2 – Wanderer of Fiery Planes
A3 – Fire and Memory
B1 – Anger Beyond All
B2 – False Breath
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Ildganger is a mysterious Danish newcomer to the black metal scene, playing a captivating variation of long-form raw black metal. Truly little is known about the project, no lineup information is given by any website or page, there are no lyrics to be found anywhere and no inserts with the record, Wanderer of the Fiery Path is left as a singular gesture of its own devices. The Galvorn Records cassette pressing has long sold out, and the Black Gangrene Productions vinyl pressing is limited to a small quantity, this has the makings of a singular spark in a vast cold abyss, an empty ghost vessel travelling above an immense and dark body of water. A moment that may come and go, with only a few that may experience it, and that is such a shame.

For fans of raw and long-form black metal, this is a hidden gem. An obscure experience that invokes mystery, ambience, and enmity. With moments ranging from hypnotic single-note tremolo sequences using exotic scale shapes to segments of powerful driving double-bass that invoke fury and malice, with keyboard accents laden and injected in all the right places. For a debut offering, Wanderer of Fiery Planes is impressive. With long-form black metal, efforts often feel disjointed or stammering with ideas collapsing in on themselves with abrupt key changes or tempo changes or odd ambient passages randomly positioned in the middle of a song or any other number of amateur techniques, but on Wanderer of Fiery Planes, there is a caliginous fluidity, like a rare rain in a desert revealing hidden channels, all leading to a central stream. Deviations present themselves but songs return to the precedents or central themes, narratives never become so entangled in exterior ideas that song structuring begins to crumble apart and there is no fluff designed to extend the tracks, like bloated ambient sections or extended instrumentals.

Opening with ‘Tangible Dreamside Darkness’, one is greeted with the sound of the wind. Synthesized strings and a single note of synth choir ring out and build up with it. The mix here is important, as not everything is panned dead center. A guitar enters the center channel with a four chord riff and the track begins proper, a shrill scream belts out, an echoing repeating harmonic gleans through the right channel like a broken bell, and a hammer blast begins driving the song forward: the ritual has begun.

In the left channel during the early part of the track entrances a long melody, one that lasts numerous bars, hauntingly beautiful, like a solitary witch dancing wild and naked around a raging fire. A break happens, the first riff returns and then silence for just a moment, the central musical narrative from the beginning of the song starts anew. An odd melody is then centralized, one that feels almost gypsy-like and hypnogogic, with a wash of strings accenting it. The melody and primary rhythm then switch channel from left to right – an interesting change – and the song plays itself out.

The title track takes a more straightforward approach, beginning with direct instrumentation as opposed to a narrative build up. Ghost-like choirs and strings accent right-channel rhythm guitar against left-channel counter melody for the first part of the song until a break brings about a shift in melody within both guitar tracks, one that invokes heightened levels of enmity and tension. Towards the end of the song, the drums and keyboard play important accent roles. The drums are not simply ‘blastbeats’ and ‘double-bass’ but well-manicured percussion featuring formal tom rolls and well-position downbeats, technique and methodism that is beyond amateur.

‘Fire and Memory’ uses soaring keyboards and percussive downbeat accents early on to create a meteoric soaring atmosphere, in conjunction with mighty waves of powerful and fast double-bass, a sensation akin to armored calvary charging across an open battlefield is created. The opening moments are truly a unique and powerful experience. The hard-panned double-guitar melody in conjunction with the rotating combination of fast blastbeats and double-bass makes this easily the heaviest offering on Wanderer of Fiery Planes and one of the tracks that prospective listeners must seek out. Towards the middle of the song, right channel arpeggios and keyboard strings merge with d-beat style drumming and blastbeats to create another moment of timelessness within an already powerful track before shifting back into the precedent narrative to close out the song.

Side B begins with ‘Anger Beyond All,’ which is most similar to the title track and one that is most structurally similar to modern black metal in general. While not as a powerfully dynamic as ‘Tangible Dreamside Darkness’ or ‘Fire and Memory,’ it is the most ‘technique-laden’ track on the entire album, featuring clean guitars and numerous percussive patterns not yet used on other tracks.

The album closes with the twelve-minute long ‘False Breath,’ a desperate slower number that begins with a long minor-chord laden riff accented with chiming clean guitars that ring out over the center channel. Heavy breathing can be heard under a dissonant main riff that drives an early part of the track before it picks up the pace with a central main riff that uses yet another primarily minor-chord drive piece of riffcraft. The central narrative returns – the dissonant main riff and heavy breathing, the theme of termination, ending, and death – as the song begins entering its final minutes before closing. The clean guitars in the central channel begin to slowly fade in again, as the distorted guitar melodies and drums slowly begin to fade out. Death is taking hold. The album is ending. All the listener is left with now is the wind, the rain, and the melody of a lonely piano. The ritual is over.

The production on Wanderer of Fiery Planes is a step above raw black metal in a conventional sense, it’s certainly not pure treble worship as there are great dynamics in both mid and lower ranges here that really bring out the characteristics of the drums and guitars. The mix is above and beyond conventional black metal, however, and lessons can be taught from this recording. The use of various hard-panning techniques to highlight melodies was a powerful trick to really bring out details that could have otherwise been buried.

Wanderer of Fiery Planes is a hidden gem amongst a sea of a boring traps and cheap tricks. For long-form raw black metal, it avoids the paltry pitfalls and crafts intricate songs that invoke a variety of mental and emotional responses from the listener, which is what good black metal should do. If anything, seek out ‘Tangible Dreamside Darkness’ or ‘Fire and Memory’ and you’ll seek out the rest.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pfAISN8SLYM%3Fsi%3DHw7ohKqiCPuJOClB

Label: Black Gangrene Productions
Band: Ildganger

-AJK