One-man bands are sometimes a hit-or-miss affair. I often picture one dude frantically recording everything at the same time, which I know isn’t true (looking at Burzum). Turm is a singular affair conceived by Tyrst and I have got to say it’s not disappointing at all.

This has a classic Black Metal feel, and from the opener “Vanguard of Black Years” it’s obvious that the nineties are alive. The frozen riffs are clean and precise, the drums quick and brutal, and for this being just one dude; it’s an ice beast of an EP. Tyrst keeps it fast throughout “To Trespass the Commandments of Tangible Being” and “From Unremembered Dark Pagan Dreams” these being blast furnaces of vitriol. It isn’t until the eleven-and-a-half-minute title track that he slows things down for a doomy, atmospheric ride down the river Styx.

The production is suitably grim, especially on the first two tracks, at first, the drums are lost in the mix, but it sounds like a knob was turned or something supernatural happened because in the middle of “From Unremembered Dark Pagan Dreams” everything becomes crystal fucking clear, it’s gradual and in some strange way it works in the universal scope of the album.

In all honesty, I love European Black Metal, especially when it properly holds the torch high for the ninety’s scene, conjuring the spirit of Moonblood and early Darkthrone, a melding of German and Norwegian Black Metal that is cold as the snow-topped mountains. Recommended listening.

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