Artist: Vildhjarta
Title: Måsstaden
Genre: Djent Metal
Release Date: 25th November 2011
Label: Century Media
Album Review
Swedish Djents VILDHJARTA - Daniel Bergström, Jimmie Åkerström and Johan Nyberg - formed their band in 2005. They made a good use of internet, gathering a loyal fan-base online spreading the good word about them; also they took on more members. They’re now inviting you to take a trip with their debut album, which as a concept of ‘Måsstaden’ (“Exhibition Centre” according to my amateur Swedish-English translation) which spreads a hidden and isolated city with its complicated soundscapes for your sonic visitation. The city with its outer and inner reaches is created by intricate music comprised of slow tempos with a lot of distortion and down-tuning, delays, dissonance, building the ‘architecture’ through the clash of progressive harmonies and anti-harmonies of staccato riffs, the Djent-mastery of polyrhythm, and also add a touch of Ambient atmosphere into the sound-pot, there’s at times touches of Black Metal also. Vocals at the beginning are presented in its growl & low screams, though by ‘Traces’ (a sixth song) you’ll be finally also treated to the contrast with the clean vocals.
The city’s presentation as isolated and hidden by no means a sleepy and tranquil one, the human conflict is omnipresent and the complex nature of the music & the lyrics, its anguish and sorrows, rage, bewilderment as well as determination come through it. The contrast of turmoil through the harder and more dissonant parts and reflection through its more ambient or slow-down more classically tuned passages are quite brilliant. It’s not a one dimensional either, but gives a spatial feeling with its many “effects”. ‘Traces’ are certainly to me a song that represents this album and a superb, powerful track on top of that. All the others though are essential parts of the journey and should be listened to as there’s a lot of rewarding points for the listener to home in. They are said to be a darker MESHUGGAH, but I think it’s often an inevitable comparison and/or reference in the genre itself. I think that sometime in the future other bands might find themselves referenced to VILDHJARTA, provided that they’ll keep on building on what they’ve got and more, the potential is certainly there.
Tracklist
01. Shadow – 3.38
02. Dagger – 4.26
03. Eternal Golden Monk – 3.52
04. Benblåst – 3.14
05. Östpeppar – 1.56
06. Traces – 6.13
07. Phobon Nika – 2.54
08. Måsstadens Nationalsång – 0.47
09. When No One Walks With You – 3.19
10. All These Feelings – 6.53
11. Nojja – 1.42
12. Deceit – 5.09
13. The Lone Deranger – 7.27
Line-up
Daniel Ädel – Vocals
Vilhelm Bladin – Vocals
Daniel Bergström – Guitars
Calle Thomér – Guitars
Jimmie Åkerström – Guitars
Johan Nyberg – Bass
David Lindkvist – Drums
Websites
www.vildhjarta.com / www.facebook.com/vildhjartaofficial
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8.5
Sound: 9
Total: 8.75 / 10
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