Every December, frazzled metal writers channel all of their remaining energy into year end Best Of lists and retrospective think pieces about the current year's state of music. It's fun to reminisce about the year's best and worst albums for a month or so, but albums that get released in November and December are often overlooked as we writers focus on crafting a troll-proof Top 10 list. There generally aren't a lot of big releases during the holiday season anyway, so it's understandable that the handful of albums that come out during this period don't get much attention. Still, there are plenty of good albums released around this time and they deserve attention too. Valdur's At War With is one such album that deserves more attention than it's going to get.
Valdur are a California band that play blackened death metal. It would be easy to dismiss these guys as false or question their grimness since the band hail from the sun drenched Golden State. But, rest assured, these guys know what they're doing. Blackened death metal as a sub-genre can be formulaic, but Valdur have managed to create a solid album that doesn't sound stale. At War With successfully merges the grandiosity (minus the corny theatrics) of Behemoth with the frostbitten grimness of early Dissection while not sounding like a knock-off of either band.
Valdur is a bit of an anomaly within the California metal scene that birthed them. Aside from Lightning Swords of Death (who the band released a split EP with back in 2009) , Valdur doesn't bare much resemblance to other bands from California… a scene which, in the past, has produced huge groups from the thrash metal, glam metal, and nu-metal movements, and today is known for suburban black metal like Deafheaven and less traditional black metal bands like Fell Voices and Ash Borer.
Maybe the band's relative geographic isolation in a small town near the Sierra Nevada mountains called Mammoth Lakes explains their more traditional style. Whatever the reason for their sound, At War With is a suitable offering for dour metal fans who like their music grim, frostbitten, and thoroughly deficient in vitamin D.
The album opens with an intro appropriately titled "Enter." The track consists of some droning noise and a distorted quote from the movie Bladerunner. Like most intro tracks, it doesn't serve much of a purpose and stands out against the second track it leads into, "Conjuring the Fire Plagues." Once the album proper begins, Valdur get right down to business weaving ferocious blackened death metal that's heavy on atmosphere. Adjectives like "swirling," "massive," "expansive," and "bleak" all spring to mind as the band plows through this 10 song LP.
At various points, the music on At War With swarms and whips around the listener, enveloping you like a winter blizzard. At other times, the riffs pummel and crash into you like a landslide. There's no question this band can make heavy music, but there's also emotional depth to be found as well. The vocalist, known only as Samuel, sticks to traditional death metal growls throughout the album, but there's a definite element of tortured emotiveness to his voice that sets it apart from a lot of similar bands.
All in all, At War With is a good blackened death metal album that's going to suffer from a dismal release date. If you find yourself with some extra holiday money and a thirst for blackened, desolate soundscapes, this may be the album for you. At War With is out now on Bloody Mountain Records. You can download the digital album for $7 via Bandcamp or email the record label for details about obtaining the CD.
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