### Arvas/Hordagaard: Dawn of Satan

#### 24/09/08 || HailandKill

Many moons ago, ½ of this album’s creative energy, a certain Vasago Rex, permanently quit school to immerse himself in the blackened metallic arts. Such profane gestures have borne fruit decades later to surface from the murky pool of Norway’s steadfast Black Metal practitioners. Residing in Bergen, that quintessential Norwegian town surrounded by snow capped mountains and eerie woods, you’d think there wasn’t a better place to come up with music like this. As for its nasty title, between Vasago Rex and his mate, Hordagaard, the devil himself comes out of the sky everyday. Hence this latest split, “Dawn of Satan.”

Now if the Devil did come out of the sky one morning and this split album was his soundtrack, it would be totally fucking gay. Because even if the opening instrumental “As I lay Dying” impresses with its somber mood and sugary guitar ad libbing that finishes with a screaming wheeze, the earth shaking “As Sorrow As Joy” and “By War They Came” really sounds as if you’ve heard them countless times before. Uh oh. . . wouldn’t such an observation spell trouble? Yeah it does, shitloads of it. Despite occasional glimmers of uncharacteristic thrashiness and melody, everything else comes wrapped in awful production and a sense of been-there-done-that. But isn’t stuff like this supposed to sound raw for aesthetic purposes? There’s a fine line between ‘raw’ and ‘shit.’ Unfortunately for these dudes (it’s a split release, remember?) the sum of their talent leans perilously close to the latter. Is there no redemption? Well, “Night and Her Blood” is pretty scary and the whole thing finishes with another guitar instrumental that brings a perfect sense of closure.

Aside from acing the ending and beginning, the geniuses behind “Dawn of Satan” should stop using their pet squirrel to scream the lyrics. In the first place, animals can’t read music. Fuckin’ ‘tards.

4 autistic necrowarriors out of 10.

- Information
- Release: 2008
- Label: Azermedoth Records
- Website: Arvas MySpace
- Band
- V-Rex: guitars, programming, etc.
- Hordagaard: everything else

- Tracklist
- 01. As I Lay Dying (instrumental)
- 02. As Sorrow As Joy
- 03. By War They Came
- 04. Cursed to Live
- 05. Night and Her Blood
- 06. Oath and Awe
- 07. The Spirits Beyond (instrumental)