Are you familiar with Vananidr?
Formed in 2010 in Sweden under the name Synodus Horrenda, the band released an album the same year, then changed its name in 2018. Since then, Anders Eriksson (guitar/vocals, Korda, ex-Hydra), Fredrik Andersson (drums, A Canorous Quintet, Myronath, ex-Amon Amarth, ex-Netherbird) and Per Lindström (bass, Goatsodomizer, Beastiality, ex-In Grey) have been keeping the band alive, releasing Beneath the Mold, their fourth album, in 2022 on Black Lion Records.
The album starts with Dominion, a composition which gradually shrouds us in dark dissonance coupled with steady pounding before releasing sharp melodies and howls of rage. Cold riffs and heady Black/Death roots are extremely effective, just like on Awake, a track which is first worrying, then it becomes much rawer, letting the rhythmic borrow from Old School sounds. The massive and heady sound also offers scathing and dissonant harmonics to complement the fast rhythmic, then a sweet final carries us to The Watcher and its enchanting introduction. However, we feel the atmosphere is more gloomy, although some passages are very fast and aggressive, letting the band develop an as intense as majestic universe before Beneath The Mold, the longest track of the album, floods us with its ice-cold melodies. The track immediately starts, and it will only allow us a respite after five minutes of a wild assault with a soft keyboard, before the fury comes back to life, driving us to this soothing final and then on Dressed In Pain. Vocals will resurface only when the rhythmic has nail us to the ground, strengthening the song’s heavy atmosphere, especially when the haunting leads join misty riffs, then Sea Of Lies closes the album by remaining into these melodious and dark tones, as a proof of the band’s Old School and sharp influences which gives life to epic tonalities.
Vananidr‘s universe is cold and merciless, but Beneath The Mold also knows how to reveal melodious riffs and haunting tonalities while the band chokes us under its devastating and merciless assault.
90/100