HEart of the Ages

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Heart of the Ages
Studio album by In the Woods ...

Publication
(s)

1995

admission

November 1994 to January 1995

Label (s) Misanthropy Records

Format (s)

CD, double LP, digipak

Genre (s)

Pagan metal

Title (number)

7th

running time

59:10

occupation
  • X. Botteri
  • Oddvar a: m
  • Ovl. Svithjod
  • CM Botteri
  • Kobro

production

Trond Are, Bjørn "Berserk" Harstad, In the Woods ...

Studio (s)

Star Studio, Jæren
Masterhuset, Oslo

chronology
Isle of Men
(demo, 1993) 		Heart of the Ages A Return to the Isle of Men
(Compilation, 1996)

Heart of the Ages is the debut album by the Norwegian metal band In the Woods… . It was released in 1995 via Misanthropy Records and, like the demo recording Isle of Men, can still be assigned to Pagan Metal , but already shows tendencies towards Progressive Metal in their later releases. Accordingly, the texts deal with nature and paganism . The album was largely received positively and is considered to be one of the more important releases from the Norwegian black metal scene.

Emergence

The songs were written between October 1992 and December 1994. No individual musicians are given as authors of the pieces, but rather the entire band. The songs ... In the Woods and Wotan's Return originally appeared on the Isle of Men demo recording ; The band felt the demo versions as incomplete, which is why the structure of the pieces for the album was revised again. Almost all of the material was created during “very experimental sessions in the rehearsal room”. The main ideas came from the band's guitarist, but they “worked a lot to create this emotional flow to avoid the stereotypes. But music is actually improvisation: Something in you creates it, suddenly someone else reacts to it, creates it yourself. ”The album was recorded from November 1994 to January 1995 in the Star Studio in Jæren by producers Bjørn“ Berserk ”Harstad and Trond Are Masterhuset mastered in Oslo .

Track list

  1. Yearning the Seeds of a New Dimension - 12:23
  2. HEart of the Ages - 8:22
  3. ... In the Woods - 7:50
    • Prologue
    • Moments of ...
    • Epilogue
  4. Mourning the Death of Aase - 3:33
  5. Wotan's Return - 14:52
  6. Pigeon - 3:00
  7. The Divinity of Wisdom - 9:07

Music style and lyrics

Due to the conflict with paganism, the band was one of the first bands to be assigned to Pagan Metal . However, their music is very different from the style of today's pagan metal bands: Folkloric instruments are completely dispensed with and the group plays metal with a psychedelic touch with driving drums instead. HEart of the Ages combines “influences from progressive rock , pagan metal , classical music and many different vocal styles”, “[strange] psychedelic sounds” with black metal influences. Robert Müller of Metal Hammer and Prophecy Productions , the band's later record company, describe the style as "applying King Crimson to Bathory ". The focus of the compositions is primarily on the instrumental arrangements, while the vocals are only used as an occasional instrument that matches the atmosphere. This "varies from tearful, overturning Vikernes -like screeching vocals to whispering to seemingly heroic, clear [M] änner vocals with a strong Viking Metal touch". Situated opposite the German fanzine Voices from the Darkside voiced singer Jan K. Transeth, who was then still under the pseudonym Ovl. Svithjod said that the band only used high-pitched screeching vocals where they fit, and that the use of clear vocals was not an end in itself. He could imagine that the band could give up guttural singing, but there must be a natural development. Compared to Hard Rock & Metal Hammer , the singer, who now appears under his real name, said about three years later: “[A] hen we recorded the record, I didn't want to sing with a distorted voice, I wanted to sing clearly. But the others in the band asked me to scream for at least half of the tracks. So I did it [.] "

The lyrics are about nature and paganism . According to Robert Müller, they were “still pretty much 'in the forest', it was about paganism, spiritual freedom and the Nordic legends of heroes and gods”. According to the singer Ovl. Svithjod's first album was “more about observing situations within my immediate environment; was spatially and mentally stuck in Norway ”. Mourning the Death of Aase is dedicated to the memory of Edvard Grieg , whose Peer Gynt Suites contain a piece called Åses død . In Ovl. Svithjod's Fanzine A 1000 Years .. ... of lost pride and dignity . The Epitaph for religious propaganda also published an article on Grieg along with the poem Nærvær ('Presence') by Terje Sagen, who founded a music project of the same name. The title of the album alludes to the words heart ('Herz') and art ('Kunst'):

"The title is 'HEart of the ages'. It speaks of nature as both the heart and the art of all times; the always passing ages ..."

“The title is 'HEart of the ages'. He speaks of nature as both the heart and the art of all times; the ever passing ages ... "

- Ovl. Svithjod : Voices from the Darkside

Design and presentation

The cover and the inside of the booklet show photographs of nature. The painting, which is included in the booklets of some versions of the album, is by Thorbjørn Haugland. The back cover and the back of the booklet shows a photo made by André of Carman of a group of people around a campfire in the forest. The entire booklet was handwritten and, in addition to the lyrics and the masthead, contains several quotes from the Indian philosopher Bhagwam Shree Rajneesh , whom the band described as one of the greatest philosophers of modern times (' one of the greatest philosophers of modern times ').

Reviews

The Portuguese fanzine Rites of Eleusis praised the vocals for their versatility and the band for their ability to “create something new”. In contrast to the demo recording Isle of Men , the listener should not expect so many Bathory influences, but rather an “influence coming from within”. Frank Stöver of Voices from the Darkside described HEart of the Ages as "one of the most unique records ever released by a Norwegian band" and a strong debut.

Trickster F. wrote in his review for the Prog Archives site that the band deserves "more attention because of their historical importance and compositional skills". Through non-Metal influences, “creativity and originality”, she stands out from the “rest of Norway 1995”. Yannick Lengkeek counted In the Woods… in his review for Metal1.info “with bands such as Emperor , Ulver and Arcturus among the most important pioneers of a new, avant-garde movement” in the Norwegian black metal environment from 1995. The high standard that put the band to themselves with HEart of the Ages , “but every now and then it turns out to be a small but obvious weak point. Some song passages seem too distracted and tend to distract from the flow of the basic mood instead of serving it. [...] In the case of 'Heart of the Ages', however, this only slightly tarnishes the charm of the work. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g In the Woods ...: HEart of the Ages , Misanthropy Records 1995.
  2. ↑ a b Frank Stöver: Pagan Myths from the Deep Eternal Forests . In The Woods ... . In: Voices from the Darkside , No. 7, 1996, p. 55.
  3. ↑ a b Robert Müller: Black Metal between bloody hype and unabashed art . In: Metal Hammer , No. 2, 1996, p. 122.
  4. ^ Christian Wachter: Progressive Heiden . In: Pagan Fire . No. 2 , 2008, p. 51 .
  5. ↑ IN THE WOODS ... (Norway) ( Memento of the original from November 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 26, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.prophecyproductions.de
  6. ↑ a b Live At The Caledonien Hall ( Memento of the original from November 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 26, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.prophecyproductions.de
  7. ↑ a b Trickster F .: IN THE WOODS ... . HEart of the Ages , accessed November 26, 2012.
  8. ↑ a b Yannick Lengkeek: In the Woods - Heart of the Ages ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 26, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.metal1.info
  9. ↑ a b Frank Stöver: Pagan Myths from the Deep Eternal Forests . In The Woods ... . In: Voices from the Darkside , No. 7, 1996, p. 56.
  10. ↑ Robert Müller: In the Woods ... . Farewell without tears . In: Hard Rock & Metal Hammer , October 2003, p. 82.
  11. ↑ a b Robert Müller: In the Woods . The expressionists of metal . In: New Rock & Metal Hammer , August 1997, p. 56.
  12. ↑ Ovl. Svithjod: Edvard Grieg ~ a part of the Norwegian Soul . In: A 1000 Years ... of lost pride and dignity . The Epitaph for religious propaganda , No. 1.
  13. ↑ In the Woods ... . 'HEart of the Ages' . In: Rites of Eleusis , No. 2, 1995, p. 44.
  14. ↑ Frank Stöver: In the Woods ... . HEart of the ages * CD'95 . In: Voices from the Darkside , No. 7, 1996, p. 25.