I hadn't listened to Svartsyn since my last review of them in 2013, but the sound hasn't changed much. In Requiem, Ornias and reliable guest drummer Hammerman produce another cold, jagged landscape of riffing, this one based on the Biblical Books of Daniel and Revelation; like much of Svartsyn's material, redone nearly to the point of self-parody, but with the saving grace of being executed competently.

One thing can be said for sure, Ornias's layered tremolo picking won't bore the listener. The riffs repeat just long enough to give the listener a good breath of atmosphere, then switch out for something else, usually accompanied by a jarring change of the basic rhythm and some drum fills to shake things up. Svartsyn cleaned up their sound quality a number of albums back, but the rhythm guitars still writhe around in a pool of slime at the bottom of the scale, with the leads sullenly ripping away in the mid-range. Everything has a dirty, lo-fi feel.

The last, Little Horn, is my favorite. The best example of the band's combination of hypnotic repetition with their clashing riffing, this is the one where Ornias goes all-out, ending his slow pronouncement of the doom-filled prophecies with a relish-filled growl. While it is no more inventive than the rest of the Svartsyn catalog, Requiem sounds great and the Ornias/Hammerman team continue to be a solid composing force.

Bandcamp: https://carnalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/requiem.