Ved Buens Ende..... - Written in Waters (1995)^{Release ID: 2573}

Stunning, creative and disturbing. Written in Waters is an essential piece of music for anyone openminded.

Written in Waters is not the type of album you can listen to just once, then make a judgement. It's so unique and creative that it takes a few times through just to come to grips with. All the members of this band would go on to take part in other wonderful black metal projects such as <code>, Arcturus and Dodheimsgard, and it's clearly apparent by looking at that list of bands alone, that these guys are simply not happy to restrict their musical ambitions to genre norms. But Ved Buens Ende would have to be the strangest entity of them all and possibly the most cherished (along with Arcturus), building up a huge bunch of dedicated fans despite only ever releasing one full length album. To be honest, it's all we ever needed, and I personally don't see how they could ever have topped what they produced here.

This is not easy music to describe. It's undoubtedly black metal at times, but then very far from it at others. Singular, discordant chords are combined with snaking, transfixing bass lines, perfectly executed and highly creative percussion and crooning, haunting vocals. There's a huge emphasis on the bass during the slower parts, which gives the whole thing a very un-black metal sound (think jazz). But then somehow it doesn't seem out of place when the black metal sections kick in. There's something rather disturbing and morbid about even the lightest of pieces on Written in Waters, which is why I think even the most hardened black metal fan can still appreciate the eclecticism on show here. I can't rave on enough about the musicianship by all involved. Each instrument (including the vocals) is played in an adventurous, experimental way, yet the band managed a subtlety that avoids so many "avant-garde" creations.

Despite all this creativity, Written in Waters hardly puts a foot wrong. I must admit that third track It's Magic doesn't quite achieve what it's going for, but all the other 8 tracks are stunning. Highlights are I Sang for the Swans, You That May Wither, Den Saakaldte and Carrier of Wounds. Written in Waters is one of those albums that makes us metalheads extremely proud. When the inexperienced out there attack the music we are so passionate about for being one dimensional or aggressive nonsense (and many try to do so), we can relax with the knowledge that bands like Ved Buens Ende (along with so many others) have produced immensely intelligent and ground-breaking music that's comparable to anything else out there. If you've experienced and found joy in artists such as Fleurety and Arcturus, Ved Buens Ende should be an essential part of your collection.

Might be controversial, but I’m of the opinion that Ved Buens Ende…’s best material was on their EP, Those Who Caress the Pale, and the tracks from there that made it here are the best. I’m usually not a huge fan of overly Avant-Garde stuff, but that EP was pretty much a perfect mix of Blackened Prog Metal with insanely quirky and disturbing Avant-Garde touches.

As to be expected, this album goes further into the Avant-Garde, focusing more on incredibly ominous and bizarre atmospheres, and the Black Metal plays second fiddle to the Avant-Garde Prog Metal. Songs change around in style, and interestingly there’s a lot of vocal variation here as well. The atmosphere is pretty great, a culmination of all things bad and ugly, captured very well in that unnerving album art. Don’t let my opening statement fool you; this is still an awesome record, and one of the best Avant-Garde releases of its time. However, it’s not as consistent as the EP, and the softer moments (like track 7) just don’t work as well as the heavy, ominous oppression. The hidden track is a weak way to end the album as well, though no weaker than the overlong outro on penultimate Remembrance of Things Past would have been.

The album did manage to give me actual chills and make me think I was hearing things on track 3 (when that human dog howl noise echoes in the background…) so they get credit for making some legitimately creepy, ominous music that still IS music. This is another one of those one album wonders where a band came in, did something rather incredible, and peaced out. Even if the album isn’t an absolute favorite for me, it’s still an impressive and magnificent piece of work.

It's been many years since I revisited this seminal & quite bizarre one-off record from Norwegian avant-garde progressive metal outfit Ved Buens Ende..... & that really needed to be rectified because it's a truly confounding & resoundingly original piece of work from a band that were far too young to achieve such a feat. I first encountered Ved Buens Ende..... through the 1996 Blackend Records compilation "Blackend: The Black Metal Compilation Vol. 1" via one of the highlight tracks in "Carrier of Wounds" & immediately found myself captivated but it took time for the full effects to take hold because there's simply far too much going to be able to grasp it in one or two sittings. There are enough common traits to comfortably determine that Ved Buens Ende..... hail from the Norwegian black metal scene of the early 90's & you'll see plenty of evidence of that across the tracklisting however to describe them as a black metal band is far too limiting. You can expect to hear dissonant & completely atonal open-string guitar work that wouldn't seem out of place on Voivod's more ambitious records mixed in with jazzy experimental drumming & unusual & quite powerful clean vocals that somehow seem to draw upon dark melodies that perfectly compliment the tense atmosphere. Then a simplistic & consciously grim old school black metal section will appear out of nowhere & the snarliest, croakiest blackened vocals this side of Darkthrone will leap forth to penetrate your calmed state & remind you that this is still a release that has been born from the darkest pits of extreme metal territory.

For all those positives, Ved Buens Ende..... don't get it all right here. I rarely find an entire track to ticks all of my creative boxes with only the lengthy "Remembrance of Things Past/To Swarm Deserted Away" doing enough to qualify as a genuine metal classic in my opinion. There are also a couple of pretty ordinary atmospheric pieces included in "Autumn Leaves" & the hidden track that closes the album, both of which suffer from being too loose & wishy washy. Thankfully though those are the exception rather than the rule with the more substantial works being much more successful in their realization of an ambition that's stood out amongst its peers ever since. The best moments occur when the clean vocals manage to penetrate my soul in a way that leaves their eery melodies still easily recalled by my brain all these years later. More often than not these melodies are accompanied by a majestic & often dissonant guitar arpeggio that could only have been drawn from the Norwegian black metal scene yet somehow doesn't feel like black metal at all & it's this sort of contradiction that makes "Written In Waters" an enthralling ride, despite all of its imperfections.

For fans of Dødheimsgard, Fleurety & In the Woods...

Last month I wrote a review for Darkthrone's famous 1992 album A Blaze in the Northern Sky and how it was the catalyst in the rise of black metal during the 90s. Unsurprisingly, a lot of Scandinavian bands followed suit. Also surprisingly, a lot of those groups never received the same clout as those bands, even though, subjectively, they made far more interesting music.

That was certainly the case for Ved Buens Ende..... a Norwegian black metal band that was willing to traverse towards the near absurd in their music. The band stuck around for over two decades, but their full length studio albums were limited to...just one; this one! And it is quite absurd, almost teetering to the point of being pretentious for its own sake. But the strangest part about it all is...I kind of enjoy it?

And coming right out of the gate, you may wonder where the black metal comparisons come from. The first two tracks "I Sang for the Swans" and "You, That May Wither" have almost no affiliation with that genre. They are much more in line with what we might call "post-metal" in the modern era; lots of wall of sound guitars, some pretty strong melodies from both the lead guitar and vocals, fluent, diverse bass lines not confined to the rhythm guitar, and percussion that is not overwhelming, but still has plenty of opportunities to be pummeling and can throw you off guard.

With all of the odd time signatures and weird scale progressions used, you would be well within yourself to label this as some form of progressive/avant-garde metal. And while these ideas continue further into the record, something odd happens on "Den Saakaldte": blast beats and screeching vocals make their debut, and they persist on basically every tune the rest of the way. And while I do like the black metal influence that is here, those vocals just sound beat down and weak. I found them to be very reminiscent of the most recent Oranssi Pazuzu album that came out earlier this year. In fact, you could probably make that comparison based on the rest of the album too.

Composition wise, this album does a good job of splitting the difference between booming melodic phrases, and harsh, alienating dissonance. The dissonance is not simply added to these tunes to make you feel uncomfortable, they always work towards something bigger. They build tension and uncertainty, only to release it in a black metal assault and it's very much appreciated. Unfortunately, some of the tunes are not as well composed and feel like a fruit platter; not that any of the ideas are bad on their own, but they aren't mixed well together. It's not an album for people who just want their black metal riffage and to be done with it. You have to be willing to take the time and give it your full attention.

But in summary...look I was looking for an odd sounding metal album and that what Ved Buens Ende..... delivered. What I ended up getting that I was not expecting was an avant-garde black metal record that pushed the proverbial boundaries, in a genre that had only been revitalized maybe three/four years prior. I enjoyed what I heard, even if this is an album that I probably won't return to very often.