LIK - The Second Wind (2011)

LIK had been temporarily shelved after three albums, all of which were good, but peaking early on the 2003 debut Må Ljuset Aldrig Nå Oss Mer. However, as the title to this new full-length implies, some further inspiration has been drawn out of the project's uncanny mix of black metal and dark, rustic rock, and I'm once again impressed with the unusual aesthetics present here. Most of the riffs are the sort you'd find in traditional folk/black metal or Gothic/punk rock, but mixed with such an organic appeal that they glide lovingly beneath the dour, low-pitch of the vocals, and The Second Wind is at once both festive and unforgiving in its bleak disposition.

"The Other Realm" opens with eerie grace, creating an impression of black vines slowly climbing and constricting the limbs and necks of the living, dragging them into some depressive abyss. I'm not sure if the breaks are all that effective, but they lead into the great, bright bridge riffing, and ultimately this track offers much hope for the remainder of the album, hope which is capitalized on by the raucous, rugged rocking of "Death Breeder" and the cautionary tread of "Ed Anger", with its percussive, repeated backing vocal creating a ritual hypnosis through the verse. Some of the cuts here play out like a blackened Neil Young ("A Filthy Ride"), while others are far more morose, subdued and creepily beautiful ("Kallad til bargtang", "Insjunken"). "The Second Wind" itself closes out the proceedings with some ringing melodies, a black/grunge instrumental like something the Screaming Trees would have written in their darkest hour.

The mix of the album has just enough low-fidelity to capture its evocative, backroads drama without gauging inaccessibility, and it's probably about as 'pro' as LIK has gotten so far, but should in no way turn off fans of the prior records. This is simple composition. Simple listening. But it implies such a greater potential, maudlin and dreamlike but sharp-edged like a beartrap or rusted hunting knife being stabbed into your thoughts. Unlike a lot of the band's peers, there's nothing necessarily 'post rock' or 'shoegazer' about this album, it's far too down to Earth, the stuff of drunken, lonely exasperation after spilling out from an empty bar into the cold, measured revenge hanging by the margin of civilization. It's a fluid and thorny return to form, and I enjoyed it nearly as much as the debut album.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.myspace.com/lekamenillusionenkallet

LIK - Lekamen Illusionen Kallet (2007)

The third and final album of Sweden's LIK (excluding the possibility that Graav will record more now that he has revisited the project) is used as an attempt to tie off the ends of the previous two works, and though a defective version with an improper track list and lackluster production was released previously via Agonia, this new Frostscald release contains the material as intended. According to the bio, this record was thrown together rather quickly, in an inspired burst of creativity on the part of its maker, and that may explain its very short length.

Lekamen Illusionet Kallet, the spelled out namesake of the band's acronym, is only about 24 minutes long, with 4 tracks, but I was quite pleased to find a greater semblance to the debut Må Ljuset Aldrig Nå Oss Mer than the acceptable but underwhelming sophomore Besvärtade Strofer, despite the interesting lyrical concept of the latter. I find the tones here almost perfectly satiated, with an honest crispness like the debut, but serving to fix some of the shortcomings. The drums remain louder here like the second album, though still indicative of the simplistic rock influence of similar acts like a Joyless or Forgotten Woods, but the bass is also thankfully running right up the middle as intended.

"I Tidens Ände Är Det Tron Som Består" is incredibly sincere and organic sounding, as it trudges through some varied discordant rock riffing that really picks up steam in the bridge, as a spike of melody glints across its dreary surface. The entire, lilted atmosphere of this track puts you right back in the mood of the debut, and then the "Röd Puls" revisits the dark and primitive Gothic/surf pulse of "Hate to Be Human", with faint guitars repeated over steady, subtle bass and all manner of rising and falling whispers and moaning. "Vredens Trolldom" is somewhat of the album's crushing piece, with caustic, creepy guitars over another gently pumping bass line, and another serving of Graav's ranting tongue. The sheer mystique of the metal riff that comes into play before 3:00 with the deep horn in the backdrop is quite a touch, and "Visioner Om En Ödslig Framtid", the closer is this morbid instrumental piece which with glinting, knife-edge guitars that would fit perfectly in a silent black/white horror film, or perhaps some grim, hopeless Western of antiquity.

Lekamen Illusionen Kallet is rather brief, and for that reason some might consider it more of an EP than a true full-length effort, but at least it doesn't squander its length on anything less than titillating. The writing is very comparable to the work the debut, and more of an extension on that with higher production values, which cycle it more closely towards the second album, so it functions as a fitting bookend to the Graav's original concepts. This is only going to entertain a select audience, like anything else the man has released, but it's a fairly fresh twist on a genre in dire need of evolution, even if the humble tones of LIK might seem more like a regression to a path black metal might once have strode upon, but didn't.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://www.frostscald.com/

LIK - Besvärtade Strofer (2005)

The second of Graav's solo efforts under the acronym of LIK, Besvärtade Strofer is a more polished and richly produced effort than the debut Må Ljuset Aldrig Nå Oss Mer, losing a little of that album's rustic charms to populate a more depressing, consistent field of moody rhythms and eerie but majestic vocals. At the surface level, though, there are some clear constants that have carried over from the first album. The spooky and fairly sparse synthesizers are mixed a little more loudly here, as are the very simple rock drum beats. A lot of the record seems to dwell between outbreaks of slowly charging metal riffs, but they're still conjoined to several of the album's more memorable moments.

The album runs in a few minutes longer than its predecessor, with one less track, and there are a few pieces here that would test my patience slightly like "Varulvsvals" and "Syner", which feel as if a little fat could have been trimmed from them. The other, lengthy piece "Viterskog" is haunting enough in its alternation between morose, occult doom with bleak vocals and the segment of flanged, clean guitars under which whispered, spoken narrative is spent, that one can very easily get lost within its turmoil and suffering. The metallic musings at the heart of "Syner" are reasonably cast, but not as interesting as the drudging ichor of Gothic horror that surrounds them. Ironically, the surge within "Varulvsvals" is the most exciting moment of the song, which seems a little too much of a drawl for its own good elsewhere.

"Prolog" is a thrifty intro piece, and I really enjoyed the depth of the clean guitar tone and its contrast with the whispered vocals and sprightly use of little organ sounds to create a pandemic of schizoid terror. "Åkallelse" opens with some more of the band's twanging, Western/folk hybrid pendulum before transforming to a driving Gothic rock force with some of Graav's more inspiring vocals on the entire album. The one other track is "Begravd (Epilog)", which is once again a guitar instrumental finale, like the first album had, though Graav has a few spoken lines after the 2:00 mark. This time, however, the guitars are cleaner and a little more adventurous as far as the patterns being repeated, and they really wrest a distance and emotional longing out of the listener.

It might not make much sense, but I feel the more refined and less 'hick' approach to Besvärtade Strofer lacks some of the charm of the original. Surely, many would argue that the tones of both drum and guitar here make it far more appreciable, and it doesn't lack for the debut's down trodden miasma of emotions, but I occasionally felt more bored with this incarnation of LIK. For what it's worth, though, the man can still weave some pretty desolate ideas into a tapestry of resilient and blissful torment, and those seeking out moody gray or deep blue architecture the likes of many minimal folk/black metal bands, or Graav's similar band Lönndom, might deem it worth the time and travail.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.frostscald.com/

LIK - Må Ljuset Aldrig Nå Oss Mer (2003)

LIK is a curious side project of Graav, who might be better identified with the Swedish cult black metal act Armagedda. The project's name is an acronym for Lekamen Illusionen Kallet, and through three albums Graav has plotted the course that would run parallel to and inevitably culminate in a similar project, Lönndom, with an oft overlapping sound but a greater emphasis on the folk aspects that are found scattered among the LIK records in small doses. This year, a resurgence of interest in the project has manifested in a release of all three LIK albums through Frostscald Records, with comely if minimal new packaging, and ultimately, a decision from Graav to resurrect the project and have it remain concurrent with his other bands. These are the definitive versions, approved in full by the musician himself, and Må Ljuset Aldrig Nå Oss Mer is the debut from 2003.

It's immediate from the first track "Pest Och Pina" here that Graav's aim was to infuse black metal with stripped, rock tones and soaring, gloomy folk vocals that stood apart from much of the 'depressive' minimalist or ambient extremes of the black metal genre. Yet, throughout much of Må Ljuset Aldrig Nå Oss Mer, the music could indeed be considered bleak and basic black metal. The primary differences come in the vocals and the use of the very humble drumming. The drums on this record pop like a garage band from the 60s, and while they might seriously turn away the fan of your typical blasting extremity, I think they really help to set this work apart. I also like the mix of more brazen chords with very cheaply patterned streams of flowing, eerie melodic notes and the occasional entrance of a haunting synthesizer. The vocals visit a number of territories, from mute whispers to traditional black rasps to the aforementioned clean, full-bodied vocals that seem to settle in the region of Gothic rock.

A number of the songs on the album play it rather close to the belt, such as "Guds Förlorade Skapelser" and "Nannlos", which do not often diverge from the simplistic black metal pulsing at the center of Graav's chest. It's perhaps a delicious contrast to mix them in, but they do not bring a lot to the table like the remainder of Må Ljuset Aldrig Nå Oss Mer, which is, to say the least, enticing. "Daupa Sinn" is a rustic mix of evil folk black metal and sonic rock, with the clean and favored vocals. "Hate to be Human", the one song on the album with full English lyrics, is a mystifying piece of brooding dark Gothic/surf-like rock which uses only faintly distorted guitars, horrifying anti-human whispered vocals and jarring background organs. It alternates between two patterns of note picking, and the drums surge beautifully beneath. Frankly, this is the most intriguing track of the LIK debut, and I wish there had been a little more like it.

"Evig Natt" is slightly similar as far as the intro's picking and sparse whispered torment, but it then morphs into a glorious explosion of melody and deep folk vocals in the native Swedish. The final track "Bortom Allt Liv" opens with a lengthy, distorted guitar droning off in muted hues of sorrow, later joined by a second for a full-bodied flush feeling. Several tracks on the album seem to lack bass, or rather the bass is turned quite low in the mix as to be nigh audible. This would seem to be purposely to leech the warmth out of their effects upon the listener, but I'm not sure it assists in the overall tone. Thankfully, it's more prevalent in some of the tunes like "Nannlos".

There is something evasively fresh and unique about Graav's approach to this material which makes it a recommended listen to any fan of the abandoned, depressive, often dry and exposed side of raw black or black/folk metal. It is somewhat shy of a perfect excursion, due to the often restrained journey back into the all too familiar tones of repetitive, subtler black metal, but the mix of these with the rustic rock elements and the tinny drumming is surely a reason to pay a visit to its foreboding climate.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (I don't belong here and I never will)

http://www.frostscald.com/