KVELDSSANGER

I was surprised to find this acoustic folk album from the repertoire of this eccentric Norwegian band, which I though was a pure black metal orchestra, but I was wrong (again). Moods are drawn towards the melancholic and solemn, as the Viking choir begins to sing. They are accompanied with classical guitars, flutes and strings, and these arrangements seem to be influenced by European classical music. About half of the songs are purely instrumental. The album works as a compact entity, and it's difficult to pick up any favorite tracks. Album covers are also neat. So this is an interesting record, and I hope that other fans of folk music would also find it.

My first review of many Ulver albums to come, a band that perhaps some of the wildest courses in music history. That aside, this is a great folk album. The second release shows this band has more than black metal in their roots. This album has a very romantic quality to it, with a peaceful and meandering acoustic which gives us a feeling of serenity.

Although a major change from Bergtatt, it has a haunting quality to it, and choir like vocals help guide the piece. This album certainly reminds me of Agalloch, another very melancholic sounding band. Very "foresty" music, for those who enjoy that type of sound.

The first real sign that Ulver is not your typical black metal band. An interesting album worth taking a look at or having for those dreary nights.

Kveldssanger is norwegian band Ulver´s second album. Ulver was at the time of the release considered a black metal band, so many people was surprised when they learned that Kveldssanger is a folky nordic acoustic guitar album with sporadic singing in the majestic nordic style. Retrospectively seen it´s not as surprising as it was back then. Ulver has over the years released many experimental prog rock/ metal/ eletronic albums so they can definitely not be considered a typical black metal band.

The music on Kveldssanger is very beatiful and very subtle for the most part. There are no growling vocals or anything remotely resembling black metal. Most songs are short acoustic guitar pieces while a few songs has singing and even fewer has drumming ( You can´t really call it drumming, it´s more like percussion). It´s not very exciting technically but it is beautiful. I heard a flute in one of the songs too and a cello, so the album is not trivial.

The musicianship is good and personal and Garm´s clean singing is always a joy.

The production is good. The music is very simple and I think the production suits the music well.

Even though this is definitely not my prefered taste I can´t help thinking that Kveldssanger is a good album. When you´re in the right mood it can send shivers down your spine, but if you´re not in the right mood it can seem a bit boring. I´ll go for a 3 star rating for this album.

One of the things I admire about Ulver is that they bring something entirely different with each album. It shows their great artistic freedom and willfulness. In ignoring all possible fan disappointment and genre box thinking, it testifies of an anti-social individualism that is one of the main features of Black Metal.

The musical result hasn't anything to do with black metal though. This is an entirely acoustic folk album heralding Nordic patriotism and in doing so adhering to the other main principles of black metal: paganism, nationalism and nostalgic idealization of the independence and glory of their Viking past. So philosophically this is pure black metal, musically it has nothing ado with it.

The 13 short tracks here contain music that should be listed under world or folk music if you would feel the need to classify it. Beautiful melancholic acoustic guitar picking, pagan chants, lots of atmospherics and quiet charm. This is an album for fans of Dead Can Dance or the Anathema spin-off Antimatter. I would even count in lovers of Nick Drake's ultimate album Pink Moon or anyone else interested in moody acoustic folk music.

The dramatic diction of the vocals can be a bit grating at first but in no time you'll go in search for a Viking helmet and wield your childhood sword around your living room. Yes, this calm acoustic campfire music evokes the strangest of images in me. Most songs are instrumental and all of them are peaceful and reflective, making this a perfect album to listen to in the darkness of winter nights just before you tuck in under the sheets. Just don't forget to hide your Viking gear before family members find it! 3.5 stars

Early Neo-Folk Outing from Eclectic Tricksters

Ulver's KVELDSANGER is a left turn into the forest for the black metal group, a move that in 1995 was a bit prescient. Acoustic, wintery meanderings became a direct offshoot of the movement to the point that bands like Agalloch have made a career of trying to combine the two camps. The album is an all acoustic affair with medieval sensibilities, gothic choral vocals, and very pleasant guitar playing. It's not prog in any real sense, but it's a very fun listen. I'm probably rating this higher than it deserves on this site because it combines two of my most favoritest musical elements in the world: interweaving dark acoustic guitarwork and low male harmony vocals.

Those two elements dominate the album, and are competently performed. Neither delve into new territory, and the compositions don't really move much. There is some sense of contrast from section to section, song to song, but not enough that I can actually pick out one song from another. So with all this negative reviewing, why do I like it so much? At a most basic level, it sounds nice. I like these timbres, I like these instruments, I like this mood. And believe it or not, KVELDSANGER is "warmer" than alot of more modern neo-folk outfits like Tenhi where the ice can almost climb up your spine. The mood here is more like a sleepy afternoon after the leaves have all turned brown. It's not quite winter yet. So I guess that means August in Norway.

This is not an early version of Opeth's DAMNATION, which is a little of what I was looking for when I bought it. It is not prog-driven, it's a folk-related mood album. Again, for fans of arpeggiated acoustic guitar, a little acoustic soloing, and male harmony vocals, a nice litle treat. Otherwise, nothing really new. 3/5

Ulver's second album isn't a black metal album at all - it's a collection of acoustic folk compositions, with the focus mainly on acoustic guitar with very occasional drumming and chanted vocals. However, fans of black metal and folk alike may find this album a curious and unique piece for the atmosphere the pieces evoke - it's melancholic, mysterious, and when the choral vocals kick in also takes on a hint of pride and majesty. On the whole, black metal fans may find it presents an intriguing acoustic folk take on the same themes as Ulver's black metal releases, whilst folk fans may find its spooky and haunting atmosphere enjoyable.

Already, with Ulver's 2nd album, it was apparent that this band was going to be full of surprises with each album. Many people lump Ulver's first 3 albums together saying that it was their black metal trilogy. To me, I don't think you can lump any of Ulver's albums together because each one is so different. Where the first album was black metal but with medieval style singing in many places throughout, this one is all acoustic with Gregorian type chanting in about half of the songs and just instrumental in the others. The third album in this so called trilogy is really noisy and heavy and also the least accessible of the three albums, but it is still quite different from anything else the band has done, even from the first album. But I won't go into detail about that album here since this is about the 2nd album.

Like I said, it is all acoustic and very peaceful, yet still dark and eerie sounding. The vocals do have some variance in them, but they all follow a chanting style and sound like a group of monks singing along with the beautiful guitar and occasional violin. There really isn't a lot of variety between the songs, but some of them are heartbreakingly beautiful. It would be hard to go through each track and break them down because every description would pretty much say about the same thing. But, strangely enough, this never gets boring because the arrangements are diverse enough to keep one's interest, and the album only lasts 35 minutes, so it doesn't really wear out it's welcome. Most of the tracks stay quite short, with only 3 going over 3 minutes (just barely except for the last track which goes for 6 minutes).

These are mostly quite lovely tunes if you don't mind the chanting part. My wife tells me that I must be going Catholic when I listen to this, so that gives you an idea of how authentic it sounds. But it is still quite an enjoyable album, and if you are listening to the discography in order, then it's a nice break between the two loud albums that come before and after this one. My preferred play list from these three albums would be to intersperse them sort of randomly to give it a little more variety.

So, it's pretty good and I can easily bump it up from 3.5 stars to round it off to 4. A little more variety would have been good, but may have sounded out of place, so there ya go.

By the way, lovers of folk music would probably enjoy this album too.

ULVER (Norwegian for "Wolves") showed themselves to be a restless pack quickly wandering into completely new territory, raising their legs, marking it and making it their own. This nomadic seeker of new sounds were already changing things up on their second album KVELDSSANGER ("Twilight Songs") by completely dropping the black metal aspects on their debut album and went full on dark Nowegian folk with emphasis on acoustic guitar, choral chanting accompanied by flutes, cello and occasional percussion. Technically the second part of the "Black Metal Trilogie," someone forgot to tell them that the metal parts apparently didn't make it into the final mix. While the folk music on this album was part of the debut, the absence of metal gives it a much mellower and laid back feel almost feeling like this could be some revivalist Renaissance music of sort.

Vocalist and founder Kristoffer Rygg admits this was an attempt to create a full-on classical piece and wasn't satisfied with the outcome but for what technical prowess this album doesn't exhibit, it more than makes up for it in atmospheric and meditative passages that find the vocal styles in perfect harmony with the classical acoustic guitar riffs and accompanying instruments. In fact, it sounds as if it was created by monks in a far away monastery evoking the sacred sounds of an era long passed with only the subtle orchestrations giving it away that it is a product of the modern era.

While the distortion of metal is nowhere to be found here, this classical imbued folk music still resinates on the darker side of things as if it is indeed the soundtrack for a pack of hungry wolves undercover of the night stalking their next victims deep in the forest under the full moon in the frigid Scandinavian winter. ULVER would once again enter black metal territory to finish out the trilogy but it should have been an obvious prognostication that this band had a hard time settling in one musical genre when after all didn't even put the black metal in the middle chapter of the "Black Metal Trilogie."

An awesome album with an acoustic guitar foundation to the music. If there was ever a band who could be used to make a case for the categorization of music on ProgArchives on an album-by-album basis, this would item of evidence #1. How this band became known as Post Rock, Math Rock, Prog Metal, or even Death Metal I'll never know cuz the display on Kveldssanger is Heavy Folk like TENHI or IVAR BJØRNSON & EINAR SELVIK or even some of the output coming from OPETH, ALGALLOCH, and PAIN of SALVATION.

This was a fairly recent discovery that I fell in love with immediately and love to play start to finish. And I love it when bands choose to sing in their native tongues.

I so admire the gutsy adventurousness of this band! How many times can a band totally reinvent themselves? And they continue to have such a loyal fan base.

Favorite songs: "Østenfor sol og vestenfor maane" (3:30) and "Ulvsblakk" (7:04)