With this split Northern Silence Productions reaches to us from the depths of Scandinavian black metal underground, convincingly proving that good one- and two-man bands exist. If Danish Angantyr I have at least heard about, then Swedish Nasheim was a complete mystery, but I am glad now I had a chance to discover the latter.

Angantyr comes to life fueled by the passion of a single individual known as Inleborgaz. This dark soul did not take long to get away from synth/ambient and plunged heads deep into raw black metal as soon as he acquired a need to match his lyrical intensity with the fitting music. As I have failed in my two recent Danish business adventures, my knowledge of Danish is still non-existent. But judging that every previous Angantyr album’s cover had a burning church on it, the rage against Christianity is what really sustains Inleborgaz.

Angantyr does not waste any time. Arngims Haevn simply jumps on your chest and stomps you with blastbeat. Inleborgaz vocals are the ashes-in-the-mouth torture, with misanthropy and hate made evermore trouncing when undercurrent melody bits are allowed to creep in. Mid-way through the song the tempo changes over to the grinding march with guitar sound resembling the electric 1,000 V discharge. Edsvoren is even more grating, seemingly obsessed with a single-minded purpose to grind the masses into submission for almost 13 min. Produced well enough so that just about every individual instrument Inleborgaz is playing is heard, the music on Angantyr’s portion of the split is unadulterated guitar driven blackish trance-thrash which should have Darkthrone, Von and Horna worshippers reek with excitement. It seems, however, that earlier Angantyr’s work, like Danemordet (Haevn) and En Falden Kriger, Soelverpilens Kald (Sejr), had more melody in them bringing a certain touch of desperation. The music now bears a lot more grime and anger in it than anything else. The live rendition of I Der Knaeler I Ynk makes you think that there are some in this world which Inleborgaz would not mind to share the stage with.

The winner for me on the split, hands down, is Nasheim’s 25 min epic Sovande Mjod Vill Jag Tomma. The song took three years in the making and, according to my understanding, is using lyrics of one the Swedish great poets Gustaf Froding. Very black metal like, Froding, especially in the later parts of his life, struggled mightily with personal mental problems, alcoholism and women. Time and time again he had been committed to rehab institutions, so I can only imagine how personal and expressive the lyric sheet is on Sovande … The cover with a person, sitting alone in the woods, clutching a bottle of hard liquor, must be very symbolic of the words within.

The epic track takes its time to evolve, growing from quiet acoustics and constantly adding layers and Erik’s soulscreams. The composition eventually takes on a feel of a portfolio of artist’s paintings. Individual portions of the song can be stand-alone pages or sketches, but one knows flipping through these pages that this art belongs to a single individual, as music is intrinsically connected. Sovande Mjod Vill Jag Tomma comes at you in waves of various feelings – tragedy, pride, sorrow, the desire to be left alone, in peace. It is so emotive and melodic, through multiple guitar tracks, that the barely heard drum machine is all forgiven. Erik and Mikael have truly created a masterpiece here, so all the time it took to bring it to life, it was worth it. Get the split, if only you want to weep to Nasheim.