In the Norwegian scene, there are bands that preferred, to the repetition of dogma, the adventure of metamorphosis. Dødheimsgard — DHG to the initiated — is one of them. Born in the ferment of 1990s black metal, the group has since drifted ceaselessly toward stranger, more mental territories. Black Medium Current, crowned with a remarkable 89 across eight reviews, may well be its culmination.
The critics, unanimous, speak of a world-record. Here black metal is no longer an end but a starting point: from its blasts and tremolos, DHG build a progressive, psychedelic architecture, where krautrock, spectral jazz and a kind of cosmic melancholy surface. The press hails a rare ambition, that of a band that thinks of extreme music as a space of exploration rather than a catechism.
The listening demands patience — Black Medium Current does not yield on first approach — but it rewards. The vocal melodies, almost haunted, converse with guitars as beautiful as they are menacing; the record breathes, dilates, deliberately loses its way the better to return. This is black metal for curious minds, for those no longer sated by violence alone.
Verdict: 9. Thirty years after its debut, Dødheimsgard has lost none of its audacity — on the contrary, it has raised it to a rare degree of accomplishment. One of the great Norwegian records of the decade.
