Grift - Arvet (2017)

• † •

Grift's Arvet is an almost perfectly executed example of a sonic language that will resonate with those who are moved by affections of the wilderness, flora and fauna, the smell of burning spruce resin in cold mountain air to that of minimalistic atavism. Erik is the sole cog in the neo-folk imbued atmospheric black metal of Grift, which is a breath of fresh air in a genre that has been pulled in every direction with great to dismal results by those teeming with an affinity to nature and tradition.  

It's sound is poignant and raw and Erik seems to have a cerebral intention by every detail, with the incorporation of a old Swedish instrument known as the Psalmodikon, which retains an undeniable eerie sound, as well as recordings Erik took in the nature around his home in Sweden; the screaming of a fox, the hooting of a tawny owl and a variety of ambiguous earthly sounds. But like Henry David Thoreau said about owls in the 'Sounds' section of his magnum opus, Walden (and something that I definitely dog-eared when reading);

•  ¥  •

"When other birds are still, the screech owls take up the strain, like mourning women their ancient u-lu-lu. Their dismal scream is truly Ben Jonsonian. Wise midnight hags! It is no honest and blunt "tu-whit tu-who" of the poets, but, without jesting, a most solemn graveyard ditty, the mutual consolations of suicide lovers remembering the pangs and the delights of supernal love in the infernal groves. Yet I love to hear their wailing, their doleful responses, trilled along the woodside; reminding me sometimes of music and singing birds; as if it were the dark and tearful side of music, the regrets and sighs that would fain be sung. They are the spirits, the low spirits and melancholy forebodings, of fallen souls that once in human shape night-walked the earth and did the deeds of darkness, now expiating their sins with their wailing hymns or threnodies in the scenery of their transgressions."    – Walden

Arvet (Bandcamp)