Description

Rare original first press from 2009 on Mystery Of Death Productions label

If you’re like me and sometimes have the maturity of a little boy, you will laugh at the album title of Djavulens Boning, because boning means sex in English! Get it? Well, maybe that’s just me. Make no mistake, though, as the album title from the difficult-to-pronounce Swedish black metallers Grifteskymfning is where the humour ends, as this is a 54 minute foray into some very cold, misanthropic, yet surprisingly melodic black metal. After a brief, highly reverberated guitar introduction, Djavulens Boning starts proper, with highly intricate, highly melodic tremolo riffing. The riff work throughout the album is stellar, with a focus on repetition and melody. On one hand, there is plenty of fast-paced tremolo picked riffs that drive the songs forward, and the softer, almost atmospheric style blackened riffs. Both work in tandem with each other quite expertly, considering the contrasts. Great care has been used to make sure both the quieter, rockier sections and the faster, metallic portions are not competing against each other, but rather splice together nicely. The actual ratio of the two styles depends on the song. “Olyckans Gard” is a long six minute song containing mostly the lighter, dreamier sequences that may sound terrible in theory, but the song itself works quite well despite its length. Others such as “I Oro Somna” and “Djavulens Boning” contain a working mixture of both styles, and the songs tend to benefit strongly as a result. The latter ends with some highly reverberated clean guitars which I would’ve liked to have heard more of. Then there are songs like “Blicka mot Helvetets Grunder” which are mostly a faster, more intense beast with only smaller fragments of the atmospheric riffs to close the song out. Vocally, a high rasp is mostly used, bearing all the qualities of a black metal timbre. Be prepared for minutes on end with little to no vocals, as the music is deemed strong enough to carry its own weight, but when the vocals do pop up, they’re more of an uncomfortable wretch, but not really in a bad way. A really great performance. The flow of Djavulens Boning is surprisingly fluent. With an intro track, and two instrumental tracks “Morka Odemarker” and “Vilsna Sjalar” – the former being a blasting section, the latter an ominously hellish clean guitar piece – giving the listener some respite, the rest of the music is able to flow really well from start to finish, and the constant change-ups between quicker sections and slower atmosphere ensure the listener remains committed right through. The final track “Den Ondes Fralsning” is a bonus track containing a rawer production seen on the rest of the album, but fear not because the song itself is actually quite good and the dip in production quality is hardly a deterrent. This concludes Djavulens Boning is a startlingly diverse album full of cold melodies, rough vocals, light atmosphere, and impeccable song writing. Definitely worth a look for all black metal fans.

Track list:
1. Intro
2. I Oro Somna
3. Olyckans Gård
4. Mörka Ödemarker
5. Djävulens Boning
6. Underjordens Kall
7. Vilsna Själar
8. Blicka Mot Helvetets Grunder
9. Guds Fall
10. Den Ondes Frälsning