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| #FOR FANS OF: Black Metal |
Tvaer is a quite new project founded four years ago in Minnesota, USA. It is currently a four-piece band, that just suffered a sole change in its short career. It seems to be composed by novel musicians as they don't have previous known projects, with the exception of the drummer. In these less than four years of existence, the project has been quite active releasing several demos and even a live album. Thanks to this activity and to a reasonably good potential, they have managed to release the debut album with the reputed underground label Bindrune Recordings, which is always a good sign.
'Uvaer' is the name of Tvaer’s debut and it is a ferocious declaration of black metal with a subtle atmospheric touch. Unlike other bands tagged as atmospheric black metal, Tvaer focuses much more on building a smashing wall of guitars, rather than creating intensively atmospheric compositions. This first opus consists of five tracks, where speed and aggression are occasionally accompanied by calmer moments which enrich the compositions. Even if Tvaer`s compositions have an aggressive nature, the expected atmospheric side of its music is still present, but with a subdued tone and in a form of more melodic guitar lines as it happens in tracks like "II", with the main riff that has an undeniable melodic tone. This second track and the following ones are fine examples of Tvaer’s strongest points, as guitar lines are excellently composed, with plenty of quite solid riffs varying from the more melodic ones to the more straightforwardly aggressive ones. In these tracks we can appreciate how the band varies its tempo adding some slower sections to the more common intensively fast ones. Another quite used resource in the album is to abruptly break the song in order to introduce some acoustic accords, that serve as momentary calm before the fury returns, also suddenly. These ingredients basically conform what Tvaer offers in this album, if we leave apart the much calmer closing track "V", and I must admit they are successively mixed and executed, although I miss a greater room for variation in the compositions as one could listen to these songs as a sole track, without noticing great changes. I think the band should make an extra effort adding more arrangements which could make easier to create more varied songs. This is the only great problem as riff-wise the performance is faultless and the rhythmic base sounds quite solid. Vocally, the work done by A.C is convincing with quite high-pitched screams, and even DSBM influenced desperate shrieks. He does also a nice job adding some clean vocals as a form of a background ghostly choir, which gives a nice atmospheric touch to a song like the remarkably inspired track "IV".
'Uvaer' is undoubtedly a quite solid beginning by Tvaer as it clearly has some strong points and overall a good work compositionally. As it usually happens with debut albums, the band needs to give a step forward in terms of variety, if it wants to create memorable pieces. The aforementioned "IV" is probably the best one in this aspect and should serve a good example for future releases. (Alain González Artola)
'Uvaer' is the name of Tvaer’s debut and it is a ferocious declaration of black metal with a subtle atmospheric touch. Unlike other bands tagged as atmospheric black metal, Tvaer focuses much more on building a smashing wall of guitars, rather than creating intensively atmospheric compositions. This first opus consists of five tracks, where speed and aggression are occasionally accompanied by calmer moments which enrich the compositions. Even if Tvaer`s compositions have an aggressive nature, the expected atmospheric side of its music is still present, but with a subdued tone and in a form of more melodic guitar lines as it happens in tracks like "II", with the main riff that has an undeniable melodic tone. This second track and the following ones are fine examples of Tvaer’s strongest points, as guitar lines are excellently composed, with plenty of quite solid riffs varying from the more melodic ones to the more straightforwardly aggressive ones. In these tracks we can appreciate how the band varies its tempo adding some slower sections to the more common intensively fast ones. Another quite used resource in the album is to abruptly break the song in order to introduce some acoustic accords, that serve as momentary calm before the fury returns, also suddenly. These ingredients basically conform what Tvaer offers in this album, if we leave apart the much calmer closing track "V", and I must admit they are successively mixed and executed, although I miss a greater room for variation in the compositions as one could listen to these songs as a sole track, without noticing great changes. I think the band should make an extra effort adding more arrangements which could make easier to create more varied songs. This is the only great problem as riff-wise the performance is faultless and the rhythmic base sounds quite solid. Vocally, the work done by A.C is convincing with quite high-pitched screams, and even DSBM influenced desperate shrieks. He does also a nice job adding some clean vocals as a form of a background ghostly choir, which gives a nice atmospheric touch to a song like the remarkably inspired track "IV".
'Uvaer' is undoubtedly a quite solid beginning by Tvaer as it clearly has some strong points and overall a good work compositionally. As it usually happens with debut albums, the band needs to give a step forward in terms of variety, if it wants to create memorable pieces. The aforementioned "IV" is probably the best one in this aspect and should serve a good example for future releases. (Alain González Artola)
(Bindrune Recordings - 2021)
Score: 72
https://bindrunerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/uvaer
Score: 72
https://bindrunerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/uvaer