Review Summary: Music Creates Its Own Language, And We All Understand Its Meaning.
Ulver tried in the first phase of their career to combine the lucidity and innovation of experimental rock with black metal’s depressive atmosphere. These two orientations, mixed together, created a new musical breath, a stylistic approach that magnified the sensibilities and emotional flow of both genres. Because of this multitude, their sound was incorrectly catalogued as avant-garde metal. Finally, Ulver’s concept has become a definitive landmark for any experimental progressive metal band to come, showing a majestic fusion between two styles that emphasizes the atmospheric sphere of creation.
Above all, Ulver’s discography is contradictory (as any experimental band’s body of work should be). Their style succeeded in surprising continuously with the multitude of variations and sound approached through the years. The group began as an atmospheric black metal act and experimented in the following years with neofolk, post-rock, psychedelic, and even modern classical. The evolution reminded me of Swans’ creative phases, tracing similitudes with the attachment of an initial rough style (as it was no-wave and industrial in Swans’ case), which knew further extrapolations and didn’t find a true final concept. The only major attitude that differed between the two bands was the conservatory character. Swans forgot their roots and completely altered their perception, but Ulver remained true to the sinister musical climate expressed in their debut, "Bergtatt—Et eeventyr i 5 capitler," a musical incursion into a classic Norwegian décor, a musical fairytale of supernatural and enchanted forests.
Ulver’s incipient style sounds homogenous and sumptuous, fully different from the daft spirit of an ordinary debut. Even if there are several imperfections, the result feels like an instant classic of Norwegian black metal. The confidence is amazing, along with the well-defined melodic lines, tuned to the unitary character of the instrumental interpretation.
From the beginning, it is perceived as a different take on the essence of black metal’s ethos, the first number "Capitel I : I Troldskog Faren Vild" ("Chapter I: Led Astray In The Troll’s Forest") being built upon a classic black metal accompaniment, which makes space for Garm’s clear vocals. The first moment sounds like black metal without resorting to black metal’s landmark elements, accentuating the experimental side of Ulver’s music and showcasing an absolute contrast. Unlike Opeth’s "Orchid", which oscillates between classic black metal and progressive harmonies highlighted by shallow clean vocals, Ulver’s debut appeals directly to a clear voice, which increases the soundscape’s mystery, the song feeling as authentic as black metal tends to be. Essentially, it consists of a paradoxical introduction in the space dictated by the poetic fraction. Against my expectations, the story cannot awaken the listener’s fascination, the lost maiden’s tale being presented by lyrics that have the quality of a teenager’s essay over mythology. There is nothing special in the narration or in the literary style, but the music dominates the atmosphere, replacing the words. In conclusion, "Capitel I : I Troldskog Faren Vild," imposes with a richly textured music that speaks in a dialect understood by all of us.
"Capitel II: Soelen Gaaer Bag Aase Need" ("The Sun Goes Down Behind The Hill") is masterfully enriched by prog-rock accents inspired by Jethro Tull. The flute introduces the classic black metal line, creating a tension born from opposition. The melodic change becomes a vehicle for a progressive ascension, followed by a symmetric incursion into darkness. Proving the music’s universal language, the moment doesn’t feel like a narration, but more like a depiction of the sentiment of the dispersed seclusion of the person who is lost in a forest and can’t discern a way back into civilization. The music accentuates the existential dread, the lyrics suggesting the same idea. What is truly enchanting is that the listener can perceive the literary meaning without knowing the language or reading a lyric translation. The music has an absolute expressivity that speaks in a primal language found in our inner space.
"Capitel III: Graablick Blev Hun Vaer" ("Grey Eyes She Senses") marks the moment when the story’s heroine meets the forest’s creatures. The style is a variation on the sound established in the previous two moments, articulated by an extended sound effect that reconstitutes footsteps in the snow. Here the musical construction is somewhat amateurish, the effect being too long and the flute back up not finding a truly fulfilled concept. These incompatibilities showing a hint of dilettantism specific to a debut. This moment would have benefited more from a dramatic approach and an emphasis on the sheer power of the encounter between the human and the supernatural.
"Capitel IV : Een Stemme Locker" ("A Voice Allures") compensates for all the predecessors’ downs, founded on a malevolent neofolk composition that designs efficiently the entrance into the underground space. Portraying the maiden’s dialog with trolls and their occult persuasion, the moment underlines the maleficent beauty of the atmosphere, the choirs, the flutes, and the whispers elaborating an expression of malevolence and spiritual corruption.
The death of the maiden is depicted in "Capitel V: Bergtatt-Ind I Fjeldkamrene" ("Mountain Prisoner-Into The Mountain Rooms"), a suggestive return to authentic black metal. The rawest moment on the entire album, it proves ultimately that Ulver are indeed a part of the Norwegian black metal scene, in spite of their progressive elements. After the moment finishes, they make a further contradiction of the rough statement made just seconds ago, finishing the record in a classic guitar tone, experimenting one more time with the musical climate.
Iconoclastic, atmospheric, and very alternative, "Bergtatt – Et eeventyr i 5 capitler" is a spellbinding work that juxtaposes a common written story over vibrantly unique music. Full of innovation and aiming to broaden our perceptions of music, Ulver’s debut constitutes a dazzling musical journey not in the depth of a mystic forest but in the heart of the musical substance, contradicting the original black metal’s unilateral sonority and elevating it to the prog-rock’s majestic ambiguity. Using the experiment as the main way of expression, the group creates a sombre sound that echoes in a language that is known to us all and waits to be discovered by listeners who have the horizon and understanding of the refined force of this cryptic musical universe.
