Atlas, the second full-length from Swedish atmospheric heavy rockers Besvärjelsen, is out May 27. It is the Dalarna five-piece’s first outing for Magnetic Eye Records following 2018’s Vallmo (review here) on Suicide Records and DalaPop and the subsequent 2019 Frost EP (discussed here) issued through Blues Funeral Recordings‘ PostWax vinyl subscription before seeing wider public release. Comprised of 10 tracks, Atlas — which is aptly titled if one considers the world-on-shoulders connotation, perhaps also a roadmap of how to survive under all that weight — runs 47 minutes and was written by the band mostly-remotely during pandemic lockdown before being recorded and sent to the esteemed Karl Daniel Lidén (Greenleaf, Katatonia, ex-Demon Cleaner, on and on) for mixing and mastering.

Any and all concern about the album feeling or sounding disjointed as a result of the forced shift in how it was written should be allayed. On both a technological level and in terms of the actual listening experience, Atlas is cohesive, together in a way that makes one inclined to italicize the word, and a logical step forward in sound and style from Vallmo and Frost, fueled by the songwriting of guitarists/backing vocalists Andreas Baier and Staffan Stensland Vinrot, the periodically-haunting echo-laced vocals of Lea Amling Alazam, and the unrepentant, varied grooves of bassist Johan Rockner and drummer Erik Bäckwall.

Those familiar with Besvärjelsen will recall that Rockner and Bäckwall are veterans of Dozer and Greenleaf, and the match of their playing and the mix and finishing touches from Lidén — also veteran of those two bands, in production and on drums — is especially critical to the impact throughout Atlas. As much as pieces like the rousing set-the-tone opener “The Cardinal Ride” (premiering below) and its side B counterpart/prior single “Digerliden,” the subsequent, mellower and airier “Descent” and its corresponding side A precursor “Clouds” lean hard into melody vocally and instrumentally — either keys or guitar effects fleshing out the material at various points along the way — it’s Bäckwall‘s snare that’s the first thing the listener hears on the album.

And between his fleet work on toms and cymbals on the crunched-out chugger “House of Burning Light” and the largesse of Rockner‘s rumble that matches the thud of second track “Acheron,” it’s doesn’t feel out of place to be reminded a bit of mid-period Dozer‘s penchant for shove, though with Besvärjelsen circa 2022, the context in which that element is put to use is obviously different. Fluid in tempo, open-feeling even as “The Cardinal Ride” executes the first of Atlas‘ statistically-significant hooks — bar chart forthcoming (no, not really) — and mindful of bringing together the emotional urgency of the lyrics with the weight of the music over, under, around and through which they’re delivered, depending on the moment.

In craft and realization, Besvärjelsen are methodical. Whether a given song is faster like “The Cardinal Ride” or slow like the assumed side A finale “Paradise,” an anguished linear build like “Descent” or a soaring wash in its peak like the near-eight-minute album closer “Divided Ends,” the collective hand of the band is controlled, poised and leaves Alazam room to belt out the lyrics with due force and attitude, as on “House of the Burning Light,” where the cadence nods at hip-hop without actually being it and “Obscured by Darkness,” in which doubt and negative self-talk become fodder for one of the record’s most memorable rollouts, heavy, lonely in a way that suits the era, and raw such that even the lush surroundings and insistent nod seem affected by the directness.

The aural weight in “Obscured by Darkness” isn’t to be understated either, as “Acheron” and “House of the Burning Light” — which has a genuine mosh part snuck into its post-chorus; one more reach outside heavy rock genre confines that fits with what they’re doing more generally precisely because they make it do so — act as foreshadow while the side B pairing of “Descent” and the cinematic-feeling keyboard interlude “Celestial” (would’ve worked in Dune) just prior to “Obscured by Darkness” itself ensure that the sheer impact of the penultimate cut will be duly felt, its rhythm a reminder that Besvärjelsen at their heaviest are peer to fellow Swedes like Domkraft or Cities of Mars in the sphere of post-Monolordian lumber.

At least, when they want to be. And here too one finds perhaps the most important crux of Atlas at work. Whether Besvärjelsen are bearing the weight of the world on their shoulders or finding a path simply to get through one road to the next — or both — it is their unwillingness to easily fit that most typifies their individuality as a group. That is to say, there’s always something about the songs that stands them out, and even across the 47 minutes of the album — which isn’t so long as to be unmanageable for an LP, but is by no means short either — they find ways to be expressive and engaging in kind, letting the immersion in the first 90 seconds of “Clouds” be answered by the slow-but-not-languid unfurling of what follows and layering “Digerliden” with backing vocals and a floating guitar lead that’s striking enough to speak to the consciousness on the band’s part of who they are and what they want their material to be.

The fact that they record themselves is evident in their attention to detail — a fleeting example: Alazam‘s line, “You smell like rot inside” ends just as two melodic keyboard notes answer half a minute into “Descent” — but the entirety of Atlas, when taken as a whole, feels complete and able to bring the audience into the sound that is even more definitively their own than it was three or four years ago. More over, they give no impression that their growth is finished or that they’re done experimenting and pushing the limits of aesthetic or their own abilities in writing or playing, so as much mastery as they readily showcase front-to-back throughout, Besvärjelsen‘s creative progression may still just be getting under way as they respond to, build on, and surpass their first full-length with this second one. Perhaps the circumstances in the writing of Atlas weren’t ideal. It’s difficult to hear the result as anything else.

“The Cardinal Ride” and a third installment of the Making-Of video series premiere below, followed by some words from the band, relevant links and a slew of other clips.

Please enjoy:

Besvärjelsen, “The Cardinal Ride” premiere

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 3 premiere

Erik Bäckwall on “The Cardinal Ride”:

“‘The Cardinal Ride’ was the only song on the album that started as a jam and evolved from there. It was faster at first and had the working name “Sendrag, which means “Cramp” due to the effect it had on my right leg. It went through several iterations before Johan finally nailed the arrangement and Lea came up with the vocal melody and lyrics.”

‘Atlas’ was recorded at Studio Gröndal and Studio Glashuset, mixed and mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén in Sweden. The artwork was created by Besvärjelsen and Łukasz Jaszak. The album will be available as blue and curacao marble vinyl LP, digisleeve CD and digital on May 27th, 2022 with preorder available now via Magnetic Eye Records: http://lnk.spkr.media/besvarjelsen-atlas

BESVÄRJELSEN New album “Atlas”
Out May 27th on Magnetic Eye Records – Preorder: http://lnk.spkr.media/besvarjelsen-atlas

TRACKLIST:
1. The Cardinal Ride
2. Acheron
3. Clouds
4. House of the Burning Light
5. Paradise
6. Digerliden
7. Descent
8. Celestial
9. Obscured by Darkness
10. Divided Ends

BESVÄRJELSEN is
Lea Amling Alazam- vocals
Staffan Stensland Vinrot – guitars, vocals
Andreas Baier – guitars, vocals
Erik Bäckwall – drums
Johan Rockner – bass

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 1

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 2

How to say “Besvärjelsen”

Besvärjelsen, “Digerliden” official video

Besvärjelsen on Facebook

Besvärjelsen on Bandcamp

Besvärjelsen website

Magnetic Eye Records on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

We are drawing ever closer to the May 27 release of Swedish atmospheric heavy rockers Besvärjelsen‘s new album, Atlas, on Magnetic Eye Records. And that’s good news both because the record is good and because I’m starting to get tired of sitting on my hands waiting to review it. A couple weeks ago — it was March 16, but who’s counting — the five-piece premiered the first in a series of three behind-the-scenes videos covering the making of Atlas (posted here, also below), as well as a clip teaching those of us who may have been curious how to pronounce the band’s name. Rest assured, if I’m ever fortunate enough to interview anyone from this band, I’ll still probably say it wrong. I try my best, regularly fail.

This is the second clip, as you likely inferred. The band are getting ready to enter the studio and make the record after writing remotely — about which none of them seemed to be particularly thrilled. Everyone kind of agrees sending files through Google Drive is an interesting way to collaborate and allowed them to try new things — you can hear the results in the sonic branchouts on Atlas — but it doesn’t feel like wild conjecture to say that it probably would’ve been the band’s preference if, you know, there wasn’t a global pandemic preventing them from doing shows and rehearsing in-person all the time and so on. Stick around for more hard-hitting insight on the universally obvious as only The Obelisk can bring it.

I said last time I was hosting all three of these clips, and dammit, I am. The good news is that the next one (slated as of now for May 11) will at last be the point at which I dig into the record for review. For now I just seem to keep getting swallowed up in its open spaces, and that’s fine too. I’ll take that.

Not wanting to include the same glut of PR wire info as last time, you’ll just find the lineup down there in blue, basically as a spacer between the new video and the older ones, including that for “Digerliden” from the record. I know that kind of thing doesn’t matter to anyone but me, but it matters to me, so there.

Please enjoy:

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 2 premiere

BESVÄRJELSEN is
Lea Amling Alazam- vocals
Staffan Stensland Vinrot – guitars, vocals
Andreas Baier – guitars, vocals
Erik Bäckwall – drums
Johan Rockner – bass

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 1

How to say “Besvärjelsen”

Besvärjelsen, “Digerliden” official video

Besvärjelsen on Facebook

Besvärjelsen on Bandcamp

Besvärjelsen website

Magnetic Eye Records on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

Swedish atmospheric heavy rockers Besvärjelsen release their new album, Atlas, on May 27 through Magnetic Eye Records. And to answer your next two questions: there are three of these ‘Making Of’ videos, and yes, I’ve signed on to premiere all three of them. If that makes you say to yourself, “Gee, this guy must really be a nerd for this band,” congratulations. That, indeed, is the point I’m trying to make.

There are two clips below. The first is the first part of the ‘Making Of’ series, and the second is a pronunciation guide for the band’s name. And yeah, that’s kind of a goofy idea, a funny concept, but as vocalist Lea Amling Alazam takes you through the phonetics and you see guest appearances from the likes of Howling Giant and labelmates Caustic Casanova, she also gives some background/trivia on the area of Sweden the band come from, and if you stick around there’s even a commemorative plate with the king and queen on it. And no, Besvärjelsen is not pronounced like you probably thing it is. With my North Jersey accent, I’m not sure I’d try to say it back to the band without practicing first for a long time.

Things to watch for in the making of clip? Alazam‘s many hairstyles. A Dozer LP behind guitarist Staffan Stensland Vinrot while he talks about the band getting together, a Rainbow one for drummer Erik Bäckwall, who, like bassist Johan Rockner, has been a member of Dozer (the latter still is), and some killer live footage — including what looks like a dug-out festival in a quarry; what’s that one? — that brings into emphasis the varied kinds of atmospheres one might find Besvärjelsen working with at any given point as they certainly do on Atlas, guitarist Andreas Baier stepping back in terms of production to the esteemed Karl Daniel Lidén (recently nominated for the Swedish equivalent of a Grammy for his work on the latest Greenleaf LP).

I’m gonna stop here, because I find that the more I type while listening to Atlas, the more I want to review it and, well, May’s still a long time away. We’ll get there though, and these clips offer fun and context along the way to digging deeper into the record.

Clips and the band’s latest bio follow.

Please enjoy:

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 1

How to say “Besvärjelsen”

What to do when you like rock and doom born from the desert but your surroundings offer anything but arid lands? BESVÄRJELSEN found an impressive answer in the grim forests of their homeland in Dalarna, Sweden. Having grown up in the far north at the meeting grounds of ancient Norse and Finnish cultures amongst echoes of runes and gods, shamans and spirits, the spellbinding five-piece crafted their name from the Swedish word for “conjuring” while drawing heavy inspiration from local lore, mysticism, and the dark, old musical traditions. Yet BESVÄRJELSEN are anything but another “pagan” outfit longing for a time that never was. With its wistful melodies and towering riff-power their sophomore full-length “Atlas” represents a logical step along the course that BESVÄRJELSEN charted from the start.

The band was co-founded by guitarists and vocalists Andreas Baier and Staffan Stensland Vinrot in 2014 with a clear vision to channel the spirit and traditions of the vast Dalarna forests, a region otherwise famous for its painted wooden horses, into contemporary heavy music. Once vocalist Lea Amling Alazam arrived with a fiery passion for punk and stoner rock that had begun at the local skate park when she was just counting 13 years, Andreas and Staffan happily relegated their shared vocal duties to a supporting role – an easy choice as Lea’s distinctive voice summoned the intimacy and charisma of singers like NINA SIMONE or AMY WINEHOUSE. BESVÄRJELSEN released their debut EP “Villfarelser” in 2015, which was followed quickly by the “Exil” EP in 2016. The Swedes’ debut full-length “Vallmo” hit the streets of Stockholm and elsewhere in 2018. The album merged crushing riffs and storming drums with increasingly sophisticated melodies and thoughtful themes. With the mini-album “Frost”, BESVÄRJELSEN intended to crush stages all over Europe in 2019, before being forced into involuntary live performance hibernation for two years.

Although compelled to write separately, the band used the spare time to compile a wealth of ideas, amassed remotely and shared across the miles and months of relative solitude, which would finally result in the recording of “Atlas” with producer Karl Daniel Lidén in 2021. Re-purposing melancholic harmonies that could have been derived from the playbook of ALICE IN CHAINS, adding gravity that would make Windhand proud, and topping their upgraded sound with exciting yet intimate vocal lines, BESVÄRJELSEN have carved a towering monolith from solid rock and planted it firmly into the magical woods of their homeland to send its heavy lay-lines around the globe that is burdening the shoulders of the titan “Atlas”.

BESVÄRJELSEN is
Lea Amling Alazam- vocals
Staffan Stensland Vinrot – guitars, vocals
Andreas Baier – guitars, vocals
Erik Bäckwall – drums
Johan Rockner – bass

Besvärjelsen, “Digerliden” official video

Besvärjelsen on Facebook

Besvärjelsen on Bandcamp

Besvärjelsen website

Magnetic Eye Records on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

Just before setting up to write this post, I locked in a fair amount of coverage for the forthcoming LP, Atlas, by Swedish atmospheric heavy rock five-piece Besvärjelsen. I did this, simply, because the band rules. I haven’t heard Atlas yet — it’ll be out May 27 through Magnetic Eye, so I guess I have some time there — but the band will run a series of behind the scenes clips beforehand. In addition to teaching people how to say their name —  my money is on “bezz-VER-yell-sun,” but I don’t actually have any money — the three videos spaced out between next week or the week after and early May will I assume feature footage of the studio and new music snippets and all that kind of thing. I’m hoping as well we get a look at some of Dalarna, from whence the band hail. In talking to the band for their PostWax release, both guitarist Andreas Baier and vocalist Lea Amling Alazam mentioned the affect of their surroundings on the music. I’d be interested to see such a place, and maybe we all will.

Preorders for the album are up, and that’s wonderful, but even better is the new video for first single “Digerliden,” which you can see at the bottom of this post.

As per the PR wire:

BESVÄRJELSEN: new album details + first video released!

Swedish heavy rockers BESVÄRJELSEN share their new video “Digerliden” as the first single taken from their new album ‘Atlas’, to be released on May 27, 2022 through Magnetic Eye Records.

Guitarist and vocalist Andreas Baier explains the song title: “The title ‘Digerliden’ takes its name from a place in Sweden’s Dalecarlian Finnmark which roughly translates as ‘the dire suffering’, which relates to the hardship that its ancestral people endured while trying to survive and grow crops in its vast forests and mountains. It is a magical and mysterious please, and its native folk music was a well of inspiration for this song.” Singer Lea Amling Alazam adds: “The lyrics deal with people in love who hate themselves. After watching Alice in Chains’ MTV Unplugged, I was very inspired by the way their harmonies work and the kind of numb yet powerful melodies. I also felt a bit of a need for an Arabic harmony, so I wanted to find a way to combine grunge and Middle Eastern influences.”

On their sophomore full-length “Atlas”, aptly named after the mythical Greek titan who literally carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, BESVÄRJELSEN take a huge step toward the perfect wedding of melodic doom with subtle touches of prog as well as punk, folk, and classic rock. The distinctly urban component in the sound of these rockers is very much amplified by the outstanding vocals of Lea Amling Alazam. The charismatic singer took a fresh approach by embracing melodies and phrases of the grunge and emo sounds that defined her youth as well as African and Middle Eastern music – while keeping her characteristic bluesy undertones.

With its wistful melodies and towering riff-power, “Atlas” represents a logical progression along the course that BESVÄRJELSEN charted from the start. The band was co-founded by guitarists and vocalists Andreas Baier and Staffan Stensland Vinrot in 2014 with a clear vision to channel the spirit and traditions of the vast Dalarna forests, a region otherwise famous for its painted wooden horses, into contemporary heavy music. Andreas, coming from a background in punk and hardcore, had realized that by slowing things down, their music would gain in-depth while allowing haunting melodies to exist alongside a cathartic heaviness.

‘Atlas’ was recorded at Studio Gröndal and Studio Glashuset, mixed and mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén in Sweden. The artwork was created by Besvärjelsen and Łukasz Jaszak. The album will be available as blue and curacao marble vinyl LP, digisleeve CD and digital on May 27th, 2022 with preorder available now via Magnetic Eye Records: http://lnk.spkr.media/besvarjelsen-atlas

BESVÄRJELSEN New album “Atlas”
Out May 27th on Magnetic Eye Records – Preorder: http://lnk.spkr.media/besvarjelsen-atlas

TRACKLIST:
1. The Cardinal Ride
2. Acheron
3. Clouds
4. House of the Burning Light
5. Paradise
6. Digerliden
7. Descent
8. Celestial
9. Obscured by Darkness
10. Divided Ends

Line-up
Lea Amling Alazam- vocals
Staffan Stensland Vinrot – guitars, vocals
Andreas Baier – guitars, vocals
Erik Bäckwall – drums
Johan Rockner – bass

https://www.facebook.com/besvarjelsen
https://www.instagram.com/besvarjelsen
https://besvarjelsen.bandcamp.com/
http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords

Besvärjelsen, “Digerliden” official video

Besvärjelsen, Frost (2019)

Dalarna, Sweden’s V — aka VPathogen, if you’d like something easier for search engines — released their second album, Led Into Exile (review here), in Sept. 2019 through Suicide Records. The video premiering below for that album’s opening track, taken from a series of four to be unveiled over the course of the next couple weeks, has been in the works since before the record actually came out.

Consider that for a second. V — led by guitarist/vocalist/synthesist Andreas Baier (also of Besvärjelsen), with guitarist Jonas Gryth, bassist/vibraphonist Marcus Lindqvist and drummer Daniel Liljekvist — went up to a hilltop, spread a few mats out on pallets, fired up a P.A., their amps and some cameras and taped a full-album performance, before they had to stop playing shows because… well, you know.

As it happens, the exclusion-of-audience fits with Led Into Exile‘s hermittty narrative, going off into the forest and not coming back. Comprised of six songs, the studio version of the album tells the story detailed below of leaving society behind in favor of a self-imposed isolation while the world chooses to destroy itself. Painfully prescient, to a degree, but the songs’ atmospheres bear out the plot as well as the lyrics, and out among nature at dusk as V are with ‘Led Into Exile – Live at Svansberget,’ lit by ritual torches with an effigy of their own moniker behind them, the concept is brought to life with spacious flourish even as the sounds are rawer and heavier-hitting.

I’ve included the full details of the video’s making as told by the band below, as well as the background on Led Into Exile‘s theme, and the stream of the album itself in case you’d like to get caught up. Today is Dec. 1 and the other videos will roll out Dec. 8, Dec. 16 and Dec. 22, respectively.

Go fullscreen, and enjoy:

V, “Broadcast From the Shadows” Live at Svansberget premiere

V on Live at Svansberget:

We discussed doing something out of the ordinary, perhaps a live show in the middle of the forest on a mountain and filming it all. This is back in 2019 and livestreams and recorded live shows were not as common as now during the pandemic, at least not going out of one’s way to make something like this with practically no budget. We live in a pretty desolate part of Sweden where one can easily get lost in the wilderness of the mountains, rivers lakes and forests of the Taiga Belt. This is a huge inspiration for us, probably even more than we like to admit. So driving up a mountain in the old Finngrounds of western Dalecarlia with an old German van filled with: five generators, full backline, P.A., lights, a mobile bar with craft beer on draft, a military tent with a stove and a few good friends and a small camera team takes some balls considering how much that can actually go wrong with the typical Scandinavian weather and so forth.

We managed to record an entire set in one take, except for a few hiccups while starting a few of the songs but we started right back up again. The weather forecast was threatening us with rain and so of course we felt that the pressure was on. We had a huge tarp to cover all the gear in case of that and we actually built a little shed on site for the mixing and lighting desks.

It turned out to be a very magical night and we lit a huge bonfire when the rain finally came after the show.

So what happened to the material one might ask? Since it was recorded in the beginning of May 2019 and now coming out December 2021 in segments, why did it take so long? Well since it was a full-on DIY happening, funds for editors and postproduction was at the mercy of benefactors and they withdrew in the final stages, enter the pandemic it seemed like a hopeless task to fulfill. So it seemed that Led into the wild-live at Svansberget (swanmountain) just wasn’t to be. But with the help of Henrik from Suicide Records and some cutting by Andreas (vocals, guitar – V) it finally came to its right and is now available to be seen by the world.

Led Into Exile is a six song concept album sprung from a short story dealing with the definitive departure from civilisation into the wild Finnmark in Dalecarlia Sweden.

The story deals with the hardships of living in this rough terrain of the outdoors and all the toils that comes with that territory. It also speaks of loss and a strong will to become isolated from an insane world on the brink of destruction. Set to the background of a nihilistic darkness the album paints a picture of isolation with broad misanthropic brushstrokes seasoned with the occult and old folklore tied to the region.

The six songs on led into exile describes what happens to a person who succumbs to the siren song coming from the taiga-belt and how this ultimately leads to the vanishing of this person, never to be seen again.

V are:
Andreas Baier • Vocals, Guitars, Synths
Jonas Gryth • Guitars
Marcus Lindqvist • Bass, Vibraphone
Daniel Liljekvist • Drums and all Percussions

V, Led Into Exile (2019)

V on Facebook

V on Instagram

V on Bandcamp

Suicide Records website

Suicide Records on Facebook

I’m not saying it can’t happen or that I wouldn’t be stoked if it did, but unless they’re hitting the studio, like, next week, a 2021 timeline for Besvärjelsen‘s second album seems ambitious, especially if they’re also taking part in Magnetic Eye Records‘ upcoming AC/DC tribute (man, they just keep pumping out those reduxes). The PostWax veterans released their Frost EP (discussed here) in 2019 as a follow-up to 2018’s Vallmo (review here), and for sure the wintry aspects of their sound would be highlighted by a release in, say, November, but even if their songs are nailed down tight and all that, I guess it just seems like to go from zero to mastered-album, then give figure three months lead time for promo, preorders, all that stuff, that puts you into probably September at the earliest. Doable, yeah. But with a band like this, whose sound is so meditative and fleshed out, you’d almost rather they take their time.

Don’t hurry, is all I’m saying. Yes, I’m very much looking forward to what Besvärjelsen might do next. I guess maybe I’m just fretting over nothing. Such a worrier, this one.

More important, congrats to the band on the Magnetic Eye signing, though they were with Blues Funeral, so it’s Jadd either way. Distribution don’t hurt though.

PR wire brings details:

BESVÄRJELSEN sign deal with Magnetic Eye Records

BESVÄRJELSEN have penned a multi-album deal with Magnetic Eye Records. The Swedish forest rockers will release their sophomore album via the label this year and also contribute a track to the forthcoming “Back in Black Redux” homage to AC/DC.

BESVÄRJELSEN comment: “We are extremely thrilled to be joining Magnetic Eye Records”, writes drummer Erik Bäckwall. “We know that we have come to the right team as we will be joining an amazing roster on this renowned label. In all modesty, we think that we have written our finest material yet for the new record, so we are very much looking forward to record and share it with the world as soon as possible!”

Jadd Shickler welcomes the Swedes: “I feel extremely privileged in welcoming Besvärjelsen onto our roster and I promise that the world of heavy music will be floored by what this amazing group does next”, comments the Magnetic Eye Records label director. “Having been part of the heavy rock underground for some time, I am fortunate to know many great musicians going back quite a few years. Sometimes such artists re-emerge with new bands and projects and I am lucky to be one of the first to hear about them. The very moment that original Dozer drummer Erik let me hear material from his new band Besvärjelsen, I knew they were something special and magical. Altareth, Heavy Temple, and now Besvärjelsen, 2021 is shaping up to be a hell of year for great bands joining Magnetic Eye Records.”

Spellbinding five-piece BESVA?RJELSEN take their name from the Swedish word for “conjuring”, which is a fitting description for their haunting approach to Northern heaviness. The Scandinavians carry melodic doom at their hearts, but lace their sound with subtle touches of prog as well as punk, folk, and classic rock.

The Swedes set out to with a clear vision to channel the vast Dalarna forests, a region otherwise famous for its painted wooden horses, instead of following the general trend among European riff-rock bands to try and evoke the American deserts.

The band was co-founded by guitarists and vocalists Andreas Baier and Staffan Stensland Vinrot in 2014, inspired by their magical geographic location. The musicians had both grown up on old Norse and Finnish grounds in Dalecarlia, Sweden surrounded by its lore, its mysticism, and its dark, droning musical traditions. The duo saw their new band as a means to create heavy music infused with all those elements.

Andreas, coming from a background in punk and hardcore, had realised that by constantly making his music faster, it finally hit a point where fast started to become slow. The timing of riffs would cut in half, even with blastbeats going underneath, and his instinctive pattern for slowing things down laid the foundation for BESVA?RJELSEN’s approach.

Initially Andreas and Staffan shared vocal duties, but they concluded that a full-time singer would free them to explore the complexity of their music further. While the duo never made a conscious decision to look for a female vocalist, Lea Amling Alazam arrived with a passion for punk and stoner rock that had started at age 13 at the local skate park. When, to the surprise of the guitarists, her distinctive voiced summoned the intimacy and charisma of singers like NINA SIMONE or AMY WINEHOUSE, Lea became the obvious choice.

BESVA?RJELSEN released their debut EP “Villfarelser” in 2015, which was followed quickly with the “Exil” EP in 2016. At this time, former DOZER and GREENLEAF drummer Erik Ba?ckwall joined the line-up. Both releases, though self-financed and released with minimal promotion, were well-received and even found airplay on Swedish National Radio.

Bass player Johan Rockner (DOZER, GREENLEAF) joined in 2018; just before their debut full-length “Vallmo” came out. The quintet merged crushing riffs and storming drums with increasingly sophisticated melodies and thoughtful themes. The album debut was greeted with great acclaim and even earned BESVA?RJELSEN a festival slot opening for DEEP PURPLE.

With Erik and Johan having played in various bands together and sharing a musical language, the rhythm section started to contribute to the songwriting for the mini-album “Frost”, which was released in late 2019. While BESVA?RJELSEN were forced into involuntary live performance hibernation like every band other during 2020, the Swedes kept themselves busy with intensive songwriting during all those months.

Having now joined Magnetic Eye Records, BESVA?RJELSEN will enter studio in spring 2021 to record their sophomore full-length to be released via the label this year.

Line-up
Lea Amling Alazam- vocals
Staffan Stensland Vinrot – guitars, vocals
Andreas Baier – guitars, vocals
Erik Bäckwall – drums
Johan Rockner – bass

https://www.facebook.com/besvarjelsen
https://www.instagram.com/besvarjelsen
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Besvärjelsen, Frost (2019)

The message of Besvärjelsen‘s latest single would seem to be pretty clear, as it’s right there in the title. But there’s a secondary, more subtle lesson to be learned from “All Things Break” from the band’s recently-issued Frost EP — and especially from the video for it. That message? If you’re going to film your video on an old train bridge, be damn certain there aren’t any trains coming.

Frost was issued in August after being included in Blues Funeral Recordings‘ limited-deluxe-edition-subscription service, PostWax. I did the liner notes for that version of the five-song outing, which also included an exclusive track, and was proud to help them tell their story in that way, because, you know, good band and all that. Their approach throughout Frost was fascinating in the five members of Besvärjelsen adjourning to the out-in-the-woods home studio of guitarist/backing vocalist Andreas Baier (also of V) to record their parts, and considering that their debut album, Vallmo (review here), came out just last year, a quick turnaround to boot. The time factor does nothing to take away from the progressive sensibility of the songs, however — that is to say, they don’t sound rushed — and the pervasive moody feeling that emanated from the first LP is definitely intact in cuts like “When We Fall,” “In the Dark,” and of course, “All Things Break,” which brings us to the video in question and out to that train bridge in Sweden.

Drummer Erik Bäckwall, who, like bassist Johan Rockner, is a Dozer alum — Besvärjelsen is completed by vocalist Lea Amling Azalam and guitarist/backing vocalist Staffan Stensland Vinrot — sets the scene in his quote below, so I won’t take away from that and recount a narrative you can already read here, but I will note that the entirety of Frost can be streamed below, with the aforementioned cuts as well as the adrenaline build of “Human Habits” and the surge and deconstruction that seems to take place in seven-minute closer “Past in Haze” as the band touches new ground in drive as well as atmosphere. After you dig into the video, I hope you’ll check that out as well.

And please enjoy:

Besvärjelsen, “All Things Break” official video premiere

Lea Amling Azalam on “All Things Break”:

“‘All Things Break’ was the first song I finished for the EP. The lyrics handle the bitter side of relationships that don’t work out. It’s about the emotions when you feel left behind. Not only romantically but the general feeling of loneliness. And that everything turns to shit in the end.”

Erik Bäckwall on the video:

“The video was shot in the northwest of our region by our friend Tony at Az Foto. I had an idea of the video with us isolated in the woods to supplement the lyrics. Tony had done some location scouting and said he had a perfect place for shooting. An old railroad bridge, built in 1903, with no train traffic any more. Close to a waterfall called Helvetesfallet (‘the Hell fall’). The bridge is about 186 feet tall, with creaky wooden planks with space between, so you could see all the way down. It wasn’t a good place to be if you didn’t like heights.

“We had set up the drums on the middle of the bridge and I was just adjusting the toms when Johan shouted ‘traaaain!’ Of course we thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t. I turned around and heard the train behind the trees. Me and Lea took whatever drum pieces we could get and ran with the train coming behind us. My first thought was to get away from the bridge, the second was that It’s probably gonna hit the parts of the drum kit we couldn’t carry, bass drum included. Fortunately the traindriver saw us and stopped. We had to do a walk of shame to collect the rest of the drums with seniors taking pictures from the train and face an angry train driver. So after the Stand by Me moment we checked the time table and saw that we had three hours before the next train. So we just got on with it.”

Besvärjelsen “All Things Break”
Taken from the EP “Frost”
Originally released as PostWax Year One, Volume 3
Available at besvarjelsen.bandcamp.com/album/frost

On “Frost” — the follow-up to BESVA?RJELSEN’s 2018 debut “Vallmo” — the feeling of being isolated in a cold wilderness in the grip of higher forces is palpable throughout the five tracks, with haunting, enveloping vocals from singer Lea Amling Alazam, outstanding songwriting from guitarists/vocalists Andreas Baier and Staffan Stensland Vinrot, and the forceful rhythm section of Johan Rockner and Erik Bäckwall (both formerly of Dozer).

“Frost” was recorded in the dead of winter in a cabin in the woods of Dalarna county in Sweden, and mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén.

BESVÄRJELSEN is
Andreas Baier – Guitar, vocals
Staffan Stensland Vinrot – Guitar, vocals
Johan Rockner – Bass, vocals
Lea Amling Alazam – Vocals
Erik Bäckwall – Drums

Besvärjelsen, Frost EP (2019)

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[Click play above to stream V’s Led into Exile in full. Album is out Sept. 13 on Suicide Records and the band will have shows in Sweden on Sept. 29 with Horndal and Jorm and Nov. 7 with Dopelord and Zaum. Info here.]

Based in the Swedish county of Dalarna, which includes towns like Borlänge, Na?s and Falun and borders against Norway in the west, four-piece outfit V offer a fair bit of stylistic nuance amid outwardly crushing sonics. The band began presumably in much different form some 25 years ago, but Led into Exile is their second full-length for Suicide Records behind 2017’s Pathogenesis (discussed here) and a 2016 EP, VI — I’d assume that’s ‘V-1’ rather than just ‘six’ in Roman numerals — that was recorded in 2006 and released in late 2016. With guitarist/vocalist/synthesist/recording engineer Andreas Baier having been involved in a number of projects over the years, from Afgrund to the currently-running Besvärjelsen, one assumes V‘s longer tenure includes a fair amount of time not really active, but with guitarist Jonas Gryth, bassist/vibraphonist Marcus Lindqvist and drummer Daniel Liljekvist alongside Baier, V tap into a post-heavy amalgam of atmospheres on the six tracks of the Led into Exile LP, dividing into two sides and playing toward European-style post-metal — Amenra more than Cult of Luna, to be sure — with shades of hardcore and yet more extreme doomed fare laced throughout.

With fervent crash and lumber, V‘s songs work in linear fashion to squeeze the air from your lungs as only their kind of rhythmic churn can, crafting a tension that’s affecting in mood and ambience. Beginning with “Broadcast from the Shadows,” each side of Led into Exile works in a pattern of running a longer song into a shorter one, then putting an even longer one after that — three tracks on each side. This underlying structure speaks to a sense of purpose in what V are doing, and indeed there’s a kind of aesthetic poise to the material, whether it’s the chugging pummel of “Illviljan” — ‘ill will,’ in Swedish — or the acoustic guitar, vibraphone and vocal-based “None Shall Rise Again,” which might owe an even heavier sonic debt to Scott Kelly than the nod-inducing opener.

There’s a not insignificant shift between sides A and B, but the YOB-esque intro to side A capper “Hostage of Souls” has a definite sense of reach on its own, and the same is true of “Broadcast from the Shadows” and “Illviljan” preceding, as intense as they are. The leadoff cut is clearly intended to hook the listener not with an ultra-catchy chorus, but with a standout riff met with massive rhythmic plod, as well as a bit of floating guitar along with Baier‘s throaty, echoing-in-a-chasm or screaming-into-the-void shouts, and it works. At 5:57, 3:58 and 8:02, respectively, “Broadcast from the Shadows,” “Illviljan” and “Hostage of Souls” set the pattern that “Phantasmagoria,” “None Shall Rise Again” and the closing title-track will mirror, but the differences in approach aren’t to be understated. What V seem to excel at is conveying intensity of purpose. As the quick drumming behind the angular riff of “Illviljan” takes hold, punctuated with a popping snare before a stop brings it to the next stage of its evolution as it makes its way back eventually to where it came from, the depth of Led into Exile is writ large in the raw tones and harsh edge V communicate.

It’s a modernist brutality, with sharp corners and little interest in quaint notions like mercy. The longer “Hostage of Souls” offers turns from hypnotic and quiet stretches to explosive lurch, breaking around its midpoint to a near-silent ambience of minimalist guitar and (after a minute or so) vibraphone that carries through to its finish in creepy and echoing fashion. Of course, on LP, there’s a side flip between them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if “Hostage of Souls” and “Phantasmagoria” (7:50) were positioned as well with the lead-in from one to the other in mind as well as the overarching mirrored structure of the album, such is the flow from that quieter second half of the one into the outright onslaught of the other. And “Phantasmagoria” continues to build on that, demonstrating plainly the side B method of pushing further into the elements and roots that side A has established.

And while the individual tracks that comprise it are longer, that’s just as true in terms of breadth as it is in runtime. The departure from lurching onslaught into the acoustic “None Shall Rise Again” is a drastic-feeling turn that, while still fair game in terms of the sphere in which V are working on Led into Exile, shouldn’t be overlooked. And the fact that it stays acoustic for its 5:31 duration says something in itself. It sets up the nine-minute punch of the closing title-track with an opportunity to both make an impact with a turn back toward more tonally weighted riffing, and that’s not one V let pass them by. Angular churn and biting, echoing vocals are met with an undercurrent of synth after the first minute, a chug and march with an outward feel cutting after about 3:30 into the total 9:09 in order to give headphone-worthy ambient guitar its space to set up the final push.

That last march will take hold at 6:40 and explodes into heavy post-rock tones and clean vocals for a surprising and melodic crescendo that carries Led into Exile to its finish. Even after the shift in the second half of “Hostage of Souls” and the cleaner-if-still-guttural vocal turn in “None Shall Rise Again,” that concluding section is a final expansion of the context for the album as a whole, once more speaking to the conceptual structure on which the two sides are working even as it adds more to the raw palette from which they’re drawing. And it’s worth noting that, for a style not exactly known for its brevity in songwriting, they get there in relatively efficient fashion, thereby rounding out a record that is both clear and varied in its purpose and unflinching in its sonic resolve. I don’t know what V might’ve been doing during those long stints on the backburner, but clearly activity suits them in terms of establishing a forward progression, which is exactly what they do in these songs.

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