Supervillain Outcast is
the second attempt at experimental Black Metal from Norway’s Dodheimsgard, and
is generally shunned. Released in 2007, a whopping eight years after 666 International, much of the scene had
moved beyond the band, and a fairly common thought was that Dodheimsgard was
now trying to do something different for attention. By 2007, the “acceptable”
form of experimental Black Metal was changing once again, and this time, aided by
the Internet, the change was soon to be accompanied by a mandate that it was ok
for bands to be identical to each other and still classify as unique, so long
as they were widely unknown by the general masses. The Cascadian scene was
beginning to stir, and Black Metal was growing tamer and more generally
acceptable in its tamer form.
And while Supervillain
Outcast may be shunned by some, there is an audience for it, and that
audience really seems to love it. But that seems to have been the trajectory for
this band, or bands like it, where they find a devoted core of followers and
then a devoted core of haters, who the followers assert just don’t “get it.” I
was not a fan of the album upon release, as I wasn’t really a fan of the band
in general, and what I’d heard back then was not anything that I’d thought
really counted as being Black Metal enough: I gave them credit for doing their
thing, and was into other experimental bands like Soleflad at the time, but
Dodheimsgard just wasn’t doing it for me. At that time, I viewed these guys
through the same lens as I viewed a band like Ulver or Manes, who followed very
much the same career path: they were guys who had been doing Black Metal, and
then weren’t any more, but were still trading on the Black Metal credibility
card. Stylistically, Manes is a much better comparison to Dodheimsgard, but
Ulver seems to garner infinitely more hate, as they were one of the first
Norwegian Black Metal bands, and then they went full electronic. Manes and
Dodheimsgard and even …In the Woods were at least occasionally reaching back
into their Black Metal pasts on newer works.
But Dodheimsgard may have done this reaching back the best
of those bands, as Supervillain Outcast is
another record in that atmospherically unsettling, futuristically grating
fashion, slightly more abrasive than predecessor 666 International, but not moreso than that albums’ contemporaries
that were name-dropped a few times in the 666
article. Supervillain also manages to
interject some atmosphere in the form of choral interludes that never fail to
catch me off guard, even when I know they’re coming. Unlike the predecessor
which relies on a split between longer and shorter songs, Supervillain Outcast is a selection of short to mid length (like
four minutes) tunes that flow from one to another, resulting in more of a
landscape of sound rather than an album of songs. Like that made sense. Individually
they don’t mean a whole lot, but the album is more of a full album experience,
really. There’s no hit single on here, or even single stand out tracks.
Everything is good, but nothing is exceptional. I feel personally that that
causes me to lean in a slightly apathetic direction with this album, which I
don’t think is fair. 666 International was
Dodheimsgard’s first stab at this formula, but Supervillain Outcast is the first time they got it right on the
head. Shame then that I can’t type up single song titles and gush over them. I
guess it’s an album kind of like an ambient album, where singular pieces aren’t
as valuable as the general reception of the whole thing. That sounds a lot less
ambivalent, too.
The songs are good and all, but by 2007 it really seems as
though the general enthusiasm ship for this kind of Black Metal had already
sailed. This kind of album was all the rage in the early 2000’s, maybe in the
2001 to 2003 corridor there; but by the time of its release the scene seemed to
be moving on from the Supervillain
Outcast kind of thing. That, and this record is really just minor
variations on the 666 International formula.
Where that album was something different for the band, this one is basically
just that one with some minor changes and a much tighter execution.
It has taken me forever to get through this discography, and
the writing of this piece made me realize why. Dodheimsgard is band that seems
to have written and released albums in pairs. The first two albums are enough
alike that it is safe to say they are minor modifications of each other. The
next two are similar enough that they are minor modifications of each other as
well. Not to say the results aren’t positive ones, because they are: I think
the only way one would consider the first four albums bad was if a person just
didn’t care for the styles they represent, which, in the cases of 666 International and Supervillain Outcast, I could certainly
understand. But none of the works are examples of “bad” or “poor” samplings of
their respective styles; although one could argue that the first two, standard
Black Metal records were kind of retreads or junior league examples of that
style and time in the Norwegian scene in general. I’d think that was unfair,
but to each their own.
While the first two records were pretty easy for me to add
to my general music rotation to be written on, the next two really struggled to
gain any foothold in my listening habits, but not because they are bad or
anything. They just don’t stick in my head for long, a general issue I seem to
have with this brand of Black Metal. The exceptions to this rule are few and
far between: Satyricon’s Rebel
Extravaganza has songs that occasionally filter through my mind; the
self-titled Thorns album is a total beast of the genre; probably another one or
two examples, but I can’t even think of them right now. I’m not real into the
later works by aforementioned groups like Manes or In the Woods… either, so I
suppose the general fault is my own. While Supervillain
Outcast has some very cool moments, and is definitely worth a listen, it is
primarily background music, which allows its more interesting moments to stick
out. That’s when things like the vocalization tracks and the strangely hypnotic
qualities of the actual music take hold, when you’re not really paying
attention to them.
There’s one more album in the Dodheimsgard repertoire, and
it’s the one that actually got me interested in the band more than any of the
previous four. But, to put a stamp on the first four, let me say this: if
nothing else, Dodheimsgard is a great example of some guys who started out
playing Norwegian Black Metal, and then made it their own thing. What they did
may not be for everyone, and that’s fine. Nothing is wrong or poor here, but it
may be that other records in this style just plain do the style better, leaving
Dodheimsgard as the poor cousin of the bunch.
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