Artist: Trollhunt
Title: Hymns To The Fiendish
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Dale Of Shadows
Currently delving into the last batch of tapes I received fro Dale Of Shadows which will keep me busy for a while, this was actually the first one I plucked from the pile. I was unfamiliar with Trollhunt but despite names like Glaive Wielder and Old Forsaken Realm in the mix I guess I wanted to see what a hunt for trolls actually sounded like. And now I know! It came out digitally last year but just now released by DoS.
‘The Journey’ sets a grim, slow sound. Somewhat old school but with a gradual layering that twists the opener into a magical dark discovery almost on the threshold of epic in some ways. ‘Destroyer Of The Deep Caverns’ has that same cloak of magic, sounds that conjour the drip within caverns, the solitary nature of these spaces. An almost sweet melody rises unexpectedly to the tap of metalwork. Perhaps even this destroyer loves the crafting of tools of destruction…
‘Small Evevryda’ delves back into the raw and the beautifully primitive with buzzing edges to the synths as the slow notes drop lightly and a classic backdrop of synths weaves the space. We get a lovely medieval tune, perfect sound, but still the eerie clings to it. ‘The Pipper The Dead’ follows on but with a creeping in of sadness maybe, a more solemn feel as it descends into shadow before slowly finding its way out.
‘Queen Of White Noise’ is a title to conjure with. It feels like some item has been touched and, as it turns and spins out its icy music, the Queen will come. It has a regal presence, a graceful way of appearing and such a fine touch indeed.
‘Overture 1349’, the year the Black Death reached Norway casts a grey spell over a still land and ‘Lifeless Kingdom’ follows. Minimal, yet still skilfully layered it oresses on though the landscape it describes is bleak.
‘Eternal Blood’ brings howls in the distance. A misty cold synth sound, the gothic trappings of strings; some urgent, others weaving and swaying through the shadows. Something is coming, something dark and glorious. Harpsichord beckons, the sound rises and with a flicker of light is gone.
‘Void Of Existence’ brings us to a strange and empty place, one held motionless in itself but around the notes suggest distant light, maybe stars. There is no fear or sadness, merely the place itself, held outside of our reality. But there is beauty too, a strange one, but it has a grace.
‘The Last Stand’ closes, almost like the last scene in a film. This is dark and ominous in the most personal of ways rather than some epic vista. We have choral sounds but they close in rather than open gateways and the curious winding organ sound reminds us with its off kilter melody that it all ends here.
I find this a curious album. Almost a collection of musical vignettes that beautifully fit together and yet face different places. It is that strange darkness that is not grandiose, more finding the fiendish in its quiet moments perhaps. And yet there are moments where the swell of an epic event rouses from the synths and spreads its gaze wide.
I’m very taken with my first Trollhunt. It has a quirky personality and a deft touch and the music is like walking through a gallery, pausing at the strange dark paintings here and there and finally walking through the last door into the unknown.
Gizmo
LRDXN142 – Trollhunt – Hymns to the Fiendish | Trollhunt | Dale Of Shadows
Walking The Liminal Space 