Mass Burial: Dodheimsgard, Kronet til Konge

Second wave Norwegian Black Metal was a hell of a scene. For a while there, everyone played in everyone else’s band, so that the first albums from Mayhem and Burzum and Darkthrone and Emperor and Immortal all sounded sort of similar while maintaining enough distance between them so as to prevent them from all being ‘the same band’. But the cross pollination of musicians is a difficult thing to keep straight, as so many of them participated in one recording for a band that was not their own, primary outfit. This was due to there being so few Black Metal musicians at the dawn of the Norwegian scene, and is honestly pretty cool, lending a real clubhouse type vibe to those early records, knowing they are collaborations between not-yet-but-soon-to-be legendary figures.

Dodheimsgard is one of the late second wave Norwegian bands, and one that really never gets the credit or attention it probably deserves. Having released five full length albums and an EP of note, the band has undergone some changes over the years, morphing from straightforward Norwegian Black Metal on their debut to a more Industrialized Black Metal sound in the mid-2000s, it may be that proclivity to change that causes the band to be overlooked. If you were around the scene in the early 2000s, you could not have missed hearing about (at very least) 1999s’ 666 International, an album that, along with Satyicon’s Rebel Extravaganza and the eponymous Thorns record, are considered absolute landmarks of Industrial Black Metal. But, all in due time for that one.

Kronet til Konge is the debut record from the band, released in 1995 and featuring Darkthrone’s Fenriz on bass. Translating to “Crowned to be King,” the record is kind of a strange one to pin down. It is probably the most straightforward Black Metal album in the Dodheimsgard catalog, featuring the least amount of genre experimentation, but certainly doing some things that, at its time at least, were a bit different from other Norwegian contemporaries. Similar bands that come to mind are groups like Isengard and For All Tid Dimmu Borgir. Twelves tracks, ten actual songs, and a little bit of a lot of things, Kronet already shows a band that doesn’t want to make ‘only’ black metal, and is not afraid to start pushing at the boundaries of the form. And while nothing here is clearly shattering those boundaries, far from it, there is at least some very safe testing of them.

"Midnattskogens sorte kjerne" ("The Black Core of the Midnightforest") is the fifth track on the album and the first one that really draws the attention of the listener, the previous four including introduction serving their purposes well and competently without being anything mindblowing. The preceding songs are good, quality black metal tracks, doing exactly what they need to do and that very well, albeit without much to get worked up over. But “Midnattskogens” showcases some adventurous and audible bass work, along with some clean vocals to introduce and conclude the track. 

The vocals on this album are perhaps the most interesting component. Handled by Aldrahn, I feel like that kind of says it all. Aldrahn had provided some vocal work for Dimmu Borgir and Old Man’s Child, as well as for the fantastic record from The Deathtrip in 2014. He just has a real distinctive vocal style, strong and raspy without being the typical black metal shriek. But again, in the time of the Second Wave, bands generally had unique vocalists. Dead didn’t sound like Vikernes, who didn’t sound like Ihsahn, who didn’t sound like Abbath, who didn’t sound like . . . And so it goes. Aldrahn’s vocals are more like a sore-throated shout, a style which he would keep all the way to the present day.

Three of the ten songs have English lyrics, again being something a little bit different for its time. The 90’s black metal bands wrote either in their native languages or in English; this mixture of the two was fairly rare. Sure, Darkthrone did is on Under a Funeral Moon and Transylvanian Hunger, and Varg did it on the self-titled Burzum album, but Darkthrone had labeled up at that time, and Varg was trying to break through, regardless of what he may say was his intention. I’m not sure Dodheimsgard was ever really going to break through. 

The eighth track, "Mournful, Yet and Forever," is the first of the English language tracks and makes heavy use of elements that are far more aligned with the symphonic arm of Norwegian black metal than any of the more raw and tumble Second Wave bands. And this, I think, is the spot that Dodheimsgard really occupies.

With this first album, it is clear that this band was not content with following or belonging to the status quo in the scene. They dabble in the symphonic while keeping themselves firmly planted in the more raw, standard black metal pattern, and they manage both expertly, and transition between the two without a single bump. But it sounds too easy for them. Some artists are meant to do one thing incredibly well. Some artists are never going to be captured within a genre box. Dodheimsgard is one of the latter, and it was obvious right away. Ultimately, while Kronet til Konge is a fine album, a great one even, there is not entirely much that stands out about it, other than the idea that one can hear the band is not going to be playing by the Black Metal rules for long. It would take them one more album, 1996’s Monumental Possession, to figure out that what they really needed to do was blaze their own trail.

It is so difficult to sit here and force myself to keep this review going. There is not a single thing wrong with this record. It is a very high quality offering that I would listen to over and over again, and have a real hard time getting tired of. It is practically everything that makes Norwegian Black Metal probably my favorite genre of Metal music. Quality, engaging songs, excellent musicianship, the spirit of the age. Whether the later albums by the band are anyone’s speed or not, how this debut does not get mentioned in the same breaths as A Blaze in the Northern Sky, Det Som Engang Var, or In the Nightside Eclipse, I will never know. It should be. Kronet til Konge is every bit the outstanding and important record as those are, and should be recognized alongside them. If there is anything wrong here, it’s that the record isn’t doing anything really earthshattering, only some things interesting. The vocals are interesting; the bass work on “Midnattskogen” is interesting; every song has something that makes me say “that’s interesting.” But it’s all moments here and there, nothing sustained enough to make me say “that’s INTERESTING!” other than “Midnattskogen” in its entirety. Absolutely an album that everyone interested in the genre should get familiar with though, for its outstanding overall quality.