Feature: Verdelger – A Retrospective Look At the Raw Unblack Metal Legends
Nearly 25 years ago now, Dutch black metal act Verdelger (a word that roughly translates to “Destroyer”) would release material that remains to my mind one of the purest expressions of ultra-raw black metal I’ve ever come across. Verdelger’s rabid take on raw black metal would inevitably remain buried in obscurity, accessible to only a few who sought out this kind of thing. It’s time that changed.
Verdelger, from the beginning, was associated with the same circle of musicians that operated within the sphere of now legendary Dutch label Sneeuwstorm Produkties, and shared members with other prominent acts on that label, including Duister Maanlicht.
Like the early material of the latter, Verdelger very much focused on a kind of unhinged, noisy and garage-like take on raw black metal, but came off less experimental and more direct. In 2002, the band released a benchmark of searingly raw black metal in the guise of a five-track EP entitled In Het Holst Van de Zwarte Nacht (roughly translated, “In the Depth of the Black Night”).
In Het Holst Van de Zwarte Nacht is at once a bizarre piece of work. Loaded with soundbites from the movie Braveheart (almost overbearingly so), the EP takes its time to get going, but once it does, there’s no looking back for the listener; frankly, they’ll probably either shut it off immediately or be overwhelmed with joy at the sounds emanating from their speakers.
Production-wise, the EP is recorded at an almost unbearably loud level that gives the listener the feeling that they’re in the garage recording with the band but completely bereft of earplugs. Ear-piercing feedback, pounding drums, and the searing shrieks of vocalist Lord Swordfather all combine to create one of the most abrasive black metal records I’ve ever heard outside of Ildjarn or Paysage d’Hiver. This is RAW, but that’s part of its appeal – it’s organic, immediate, unfiltered. Only one track, “Doomed to Burn,” feels out of place due to its obviously being recorded quite differently (it’s almost quiet in comparison with other tracks), but its driving structure remains just as raw as the rest of the songs.
Lord Swordfather reaches heights of almost comical vocal delivery with his high-pitched screams on “Imbolc Night and Its Bloody Funeral” and “The Shimmering of the Last Days,” walking a razor-thin line between laughter-inducing and frightening all at the same time. The EP ends on the repetitive assault of the title track, arguably the band’s most direct and aggressive song on the whole EP. Over the course of the record, the sound is positively wild and ferocious, and leaves the listener nigh exhausted from the experience.
Norwegian primitive black metal act Ildjarn is an obvious reference here to Verdelger’s approach on their debut EP, with both bands sharing a sonic approach that is hyper-abrasive, minimalistic, and focused on sounding as ferocious and in-your-face as possible. However, I also wonder if Verdelger were influenced by the more famous Norwegian black metal band Ulver, specifically their Nattens Madrigal album. Both share an obvious disdain for any kind of listener accessibility, both share a similar style of throat-shredding vocal style, and both have guitar sounds that are so high-treble that one note could easily shatter someone’s ear-drums with ease. The difference is that Verdelger lack the intricate structures and folk elements heard on Nattens Madrigal, instead going for a more garage/punkish approach to it all. Still, the touchpoints remain.
After the release of In Het Holst Van de Zwarte Nacht, two of the three members would leave (Baron Eulogian and Herr Darkpriest), with only Lord Swordfather remaining. Verdelger, now as a solo project, would release one final single entitled “De Bremer Stads Muzikanten” in 2003. With a dream-like bit of cover art of what appear to be wolves running across a moonlit night landscape, “De Bremer Stads Muzikanten” would prove to unfortunately be a lacklustre note for the band to go out on before changing their name and morphing into avant-garde act Borgazur.
Where the band’s first EP was powerful, “De Bremer Stads Muzikanten” felt much more like a demo track recorded in one take without any real direction in mind as to where to go. Tinny acoustic guitars and shuffling drums lead into repetitive minimalistic black metal similar to that heard on the previous EP’s title track and “Doomed to Burn,” but the wild punch of that EP’s sound is gone. It feels like a car running out of gas at this point, slowly coasting to a crawl and stopping altogether. For myself, it’s not what I want to hear from a band like this that made such an impression on me with their debut. In essence, it’s a track for the completionists.
Several years later, now defunct (and apparently somewhat problematic) label Unblack Metal Scene would compile the surviving material of the band on to one disc, replete with some excellent new cover art depicting a lone wolf in the woods (perhaps a nod to that Nattens Madrigal album?). In Het Holst Van de Zwarte Nacht had much of the Braveheart soundbites cut out for this release, leaving the tracks to simply hit without any buffer. Though it was nice to have Verdelger’s material all compiled on to one disc, the production across the board was extremely uneven; be warned, you’ll have to crank the volume to maximum to really hear anything going on in “De Bremer Stads Muzikanten,” but if you don’t reset the volume before the record goes back to the opening track “Satanic Lamentation,” you’ll probably blow your speakers – and your eardrums.
In the end, Verdelger remains an obscure band but one absolutely worth knowing. Their ultra-raw take on black metal remains one of the most uncompromising and direct expressions of the sound I’ve come across, and though their music is admittedly somewhat juvenile and haphazard in execution, the sheer animalistic fury with which it hits is unrivalled in the unblack metal world. A lost gem, In Het Holst Van de Zwarte Nacht is worth finding a copy of if you can.
In the meantime, you can find a surviving document of the band for download at Sneeuwstorm Produkties, as well as the full-length In Het Holst Van de Zwarte Nacht posted to listen to on Youtube thanks to the Christian Metal Noise channel. One user on Youtube also posted the “De Bremer Stads Muzikanten” track in its entirety HERE.
For Fans Of: Ildjarn, Duister Maanlicht (pre- Azrael (Can), Emperador, Ulver (Nattens Madrigal album), Hazeroth (early)
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