Band:	Sól Án Varma
Album:	Sól Án Varma
Style:	Melodic black metal, Doom metal
Release date:	April 2023

01. Afbrigði I
02. Afbrigði II
03. Afbrigði III
04. Afbrigði IV
05. Afbrigði V
06. Afbrigði VI
07. Afbrigði VII
08. Afbrigði VIII
09. Afbrigði IX
10. Afbrigði X
11. Afbrigði XI
12. Afbrigði XII

Roadburn 2018. A supergroup composed of members from a multitude of Icelandic black metal bands has composed a 67-minute show for this occasion only. What sort of doomy dissonance awaits the audience?

Tired and beaten from the usual shenanigans of festival life, I drag my half-respondent body to the location of the Sól Án Varma (Sun Without Radiance) show, hoping for something to jolt me awake from the massive overload of live music, alcoholic beverages, and scorching heat of the past few days. Seven figures enter the stage; it is impossible to tell who is who, but I happen to know they are members of bands such as Misþyrming, Svartidauði, Carpe Noctem, and Wormlust . Who is playing what? I have no idea, nor does it matter. As the first chords of a dissonant, really slow riff starts to ring out across the crowd, my body starts to come alive, my drunken stupor starts to fade, and the sun starts to radiate a cold embrace. Time to get this show started.

The first part of the show consists of over 6 minutes of an incessant, dissonant doom riff replete with ethereal screams, and just as it starts to lull me into a false sense of security, a lethargic double-kick enters to drive the nail into the coffin. The drums do a lot to build the mood in this section, as it slowly escalates into the beautiful, weeping guitar line that introduces the second part. Of course, this pretty melody soon devolves into blast beats and Deathspell Omega-like dissonance. It's a neat trick, and I hope for several such moments to come.

However, it soon turns out that Sól Án Varma is a show designed with variance and surprise in mind. For us listeners, it soon turns out that it is very hard to predict where the music will take us next, even if it all is built using the same bricks. As the show reaches its mid-point, the tempo escalates, the melodies become more intricate, and the screaming intensifies and turns more rhythmic. The sixth part blasts by without pardon, and a very ear-catching, descending, dissonant, trebly guitar melody comprises most of the seventh part. I had my doubts, on and off, throughout the first half of the show, but Sól Án Varma has clearly designed this experience to build slowly, through many twists and turns, towards a so far unknown climax.

The eighth movement starts out with an iconic 5/4 beat, as the guitars start playing a two-chord riff that almost psychedelically jumps between the two chords in a surreal fashion before introducing a key change. It makes the entire movement feel like a rapidly shifting ebb and tide of some ominous, approaching doom, and is highly memorable. In the tenth movement, choirs are suddenly introduced, and they will be with us until the bitter end of the show, amplifying the music with a sorrowful epicness and raising the intensity even further. The eleventh movement is the big climax, where rapid blast beats and morose choirs support the surprisingly melodic assault of the guitars and vocals before dying down into the synth-driven, reflective outro that is the final movement. As the final tones die out, I stand in awe of what I just witnessed, grateful to have been part of this unique experience.

Of course, it turns out that five years later, they would record the entire concert in a studio for everybody to hear, and that's how I have been partaking of it, as I never in my life attended Roadburn. But if I had attended, this is very likely what my concert review would have looked like. As an album, it is slightly too long, at nearly 70 minutes, and it takes its sweet time to get going, but when it does, the results are pretty spectacular. If you're a fan of doomy, epic, dissonant black metal, or any combination of these three, you'd do well to check this album out. Fooled you, did I? My work here is done.