VILDHJARTA

Over the last couple of decades, it has become increasingly hard to be enigmatic. Now that every band has to share the details of their daily itinerary, their dinner and their inside leg measurements, mystique and intrigue are decidedly out of fashion. Fortunately, VILDHJARTA have never played the conformist game, and they remain one of the few contemporary bands about which we know comparatively little. Ostensibly a part of the djent scene that erupted 15 or so years ago, the Swedes share a few strands of metal DNA with their peers in TESSERACT and PERIPHERY, but that affiliation is skin deep at best.

Instantly revered after the release of debut full-length "Masstaden" in 2011, VILDHJARTA have not been in a hurry to expand their legacy. One low-key EP (2013's "Thousands Of Evils") and one more studio record (2021's "Masstaden under vatten") is all fans have to show for their loyalty at this point, but much of the band's appeal is rooted in their mysteriousness. It almost comes as a surprise that they have pieced another full album together this soon after its predecessor. Incrementally teased over the last 2 years, "+ dar skogen sjunger evighetens granar +" is another gargantuan effort, rendered in the grim black and bloody shades of urban collapse and existential trauma.

As the few tracks that have already been released have confirmed, VILDHJARTA are no nearer to making palatable, commercially minded prog metal than they were at the start. Despite the recent departure of founder Daniel Bergstrom (who still receives a songwriting credit),and the apparent absence of any original members, their uniquely tumultuous and terrifying sound remains unchanged. The difference here is that, impressively, "+ dar skogen junger evighetens granar +" is by far the heaviest and most disturbing VILDHJARTA record to date. Its title might suggest a more serene outlook on life ("Where the forest sings under the eternal spruce trees…") but as an experience, this is more like being dropped into the midst of a never-ending storm of flying concrete blocks and shattered steel.

There is a playfulness to the first few riffs on opener "+ byta ut alla stjarnor pa himien mot plustecken +": a slight glimmer of sunshine amid the hideous, grinding guitar and bass tones rupturing the speakers. But as the song progresses, any semblance of light is extinguished with ruthless brutality. VILDHJARTA weave absorbing, detail-rich tapestries with their perverse, de-tuned riffs and polyrhythmic militancy, and while there are frequent moments that draw from more atmospheric and melodic sources, the overall impact is hewn from pure, maximalist punishment. Glacial, ambient soundscapes drift in an out of earshot, providing spectral glue between each bruising, counterintuitive excursion, but those dynamics seem peripheral to the main, mutant metal event: an endless, slow-motion avalanche of deeply weird and ingenious riffs, played with heavy-handed pugnacity and blissful, technical skill. Songs like singles "+ sargasso +" and "+ ylva +" allow skewed melody and ambient trickery to intervene at apposite moments, but it is the unrelenting, forward grind of guitarist Calle Thomér's syncopated partnership with drummer Buster Odeholm that dominates. Both gripping and unfathomable, "kristallfågel" is a masterful display of tension and release, with startling, dream-core detours and a brilliantly incensed vocal from frontman Vilhelm Bladin. Travelling further out into cerebral realms, "viktlös & evig" is a real-time reconstruction of VILDHJARTA's math-metal fundamentals, and a disorientating prog indulgence with earthy, clean vocal hooks and an intricate, tripped-out final descent that swings like a megalodon's ball bag. Meanwhile, the closing "+ den spanska känslan +" shines unforgiving light on some of the Swedes' most grotesque riffs, whipping them into a state of electrified flux for seven restless, mind-expanding minutes.

Best consumed in one giant, skull-flattening hit, "+ dar Skogen sjunger evighetens granar +" may only make perfect sense to its creators, but its multi-faceted intensity is impossible to resist: assuming, that is, that you like your metal to be ruinously heavy, sparklingly original and weird as all hell.