Hermóðr is the work of a Swedish guy named Rafn. He churns out low-fi black metal, playing every instrument one track at a time in what has to be his parents’ basement. The production quality—or lack thereof—can make this music hard to take seriously, and yet I remind myself that raw recording quality is actually sought after in this particular genre. Black metal is a peculiar sort of cultural phenomenon in Scandinavia, one wrought with murders among bandmates, violent suicides, and widespread church burnings throughout Norway in the ’90s. Where mainstream metal bands in America and the U.K. were faking their tough images just to get laid, these guys were genuinely evil. You know, just being evil for evil’s sake. And if you really want that kind of darkness to come out in your music, how much time would you care to spend making something sound slick and polished?
Today Rafn is continuing the tradition of a similar one-man-black-metal-band in Norway’s Burzum (a.k.a. Varg Vikernes), only I hope without the murder. He certainly is without a compressor, because the levels on the tracks are tragically unbalanced. Hey, consider it breaking new ground in the avant aesthetics of Scandinavian black metal.
Mike Frasier Music 