Ljain – “Endasalmar Og Klofnar Tungur” – [Signal Rex]

whngr   10/10/2020   12-inch, A Library

Ljáin (Lē- yaw-in [scythes]) are an abstruse Icelandic black-metal project and this release is (originally from 2016 released on vinyl [currently in your trembling claws] by Signal Rex [Lusitania]).

The intro is a murky, haunting choral affair that segues into a brief echoing church bells before the avalanche of low fidelity metal ensues. A turgid, miserable flow of hollow wails, reverberating guitars, and buried, ugly drum assault. So murky and cacophonous that it could almost be atmospheric at lower levels but surely that is not the intent of Ljáin. In the red, all the way up, chaotic barrage of untethered rage sprinkled with spooky back tracked interludes. The vibes are of doom, terror, misery, death awareness, death longing, murder-lust, shivering spectral dissonance, famished troll worship, sweeping landscapes of jagged rock and ice…