2024 celebrates the return of Weltschmerz.
Five years after their last release, the trio Hræsvelg (guitar/bass, Sterveling, Prospectors, ex-Wesenwille), Galgenvot (vocals, Wrang, Nevel) and Valr (drums, Wrang, Deathless Void, Bodyfarm, ex-Wesenwille, live for Helleruin…) announce the release of III: Non Sequitur, their third album.
From the very first notes of Casus Belli, the opening track, we immediately sense that the title is rooted in a blend of pure melancholy and raw violence. The rhythmic explosion confirms this, letting devastating blast and vociferations meet heady harmonics but also slower, haunting passages before undergoing the chaos of The Unwavering Silence, where screaming, jerky riffs are at work. The vocal parts also become highly expressive, not hesitating to become imposing or plaintive to match the rhythmic madness, even adopting a piercing solo at the end before returning to gentleness on A Shimmering Light. Saturation and growls join the soothing flow to corrupt it and make it accelerate, barely returning to its original state to better abandon itself to fury again until its final moments, which lead us to Emanations. A kind of calm but intriguing interlude, this instrumental track lets the acoustic guitar bewitch us before leading into the long, devastating Fugit Irreparabile Tempus, which first unveils a hurricane of violence before temporizing with more misty volutes, then once again more chaotic and disordered, haunting the atmosphere, gradually trying to set itself ablaze again until it dies, and makes way for Ego Solus. We sense the track’s deep nostalgia, letting the vocalist give it his bursts of vitality or abandon it for moments of vaporous sweetness, but it will return to tint our minds forever with its cries of pain.
Although Weltschmerz is a band rooted in sorrow and melancholy, there is clear evidence of aggression in their music. III: Non Sequitur is an immersive album that swings from storm to storm and never shies away from shaking us.
90/100