When I started this site 12 years ago, I never imagined I’d still be pounding away at it nearing 50. But I’m glad I am. So many people my age don’t really keep up with things like music, and the fact I’m still able to discover bands and find new pathways means I’m adapting and showing resiliency. I’m not listening to the same old stuff, and each year I end up going in directions I never thought I’d take.

I thought about that a lot after my first listen to “The Deepening,” the first new record from Vemod in more than a decade, and each subsequent visit has only amplified that. Change, transformation, and growth are primary tenets of this record, and the band—guitarist/synth player, clean vocalist Jan Even Åsli , drummer/harsh vocalist Eskil Blix, bassist Espen Kalstad—also demonstrates that in their music. Black metal remains a base, but they go in such thought-provoking, stimulating new areas and enrich what already was a very robust recipe, into a touchstone album for a very young 2024. Every moment is captivating and immersive, and I can tell this is music that will stick with me deep into the year and beyond.

“Mot oss, en ild” opens gently, as if ensconced in a fog, the moodiness building and trickling into “Der guder dør” that is dramatic and clashing as it greets you. Howls creep in as the playing grows more adventurous, melodies swelling and warming your bones, the atmosphere suddenly wrenching. Sounds ache as the tempo pulls back and forth, the guitars picking up and jangling, clean energy bursting and unleashing a breeze. The playing gains steam as it draws to its close, bleeding into the horizon. “True North Beckons” stirs and quakes, the growls overwhelming, melodies glowing and then gushing. The howls penetrate as warm guitars glimmer, eventually mashing and causing bruising, the leads simmering and pulling into dusk. The pace moves with prog energy and an increasing cloud cover, churning and driving into the stars.

“Fra drømmenes bok I” is a brief interlude as isolated voices and eventually choral breezes push into the open, ghostly and strange spirits surrounding you. “Inn i lysande natt” is an instrumental piece that brings a sound hum before guitars engage and increase the temperature, the bass plodding, and a post-punk-style barrage darkening the skies. The playing feels like a warm journey, melodic waves crashing, wordless calls making your blood rush through your veins, and the guitars scarring before hurtling toward the sun. The closing title track is the longest piece at 16:14, and it’s a wonderful use of time, surging with clean singing that turns into acidic growls, spacious textures transforming into gnarly speed. The vocals grow harsh and foreboding, creaking with moodiness, gushing with dark energy, crushing with spacey atmosphere. Hazy calls pull out of a blistering dream, the bass quivers, and an imaginative passage floats in ether. A synth bed comforts, the playing merges into the heavens, and the adventure rests only in your sleep now.

Vemod return after a 12-year absence with a record so immersive and moving that “The Deepening” makes that gap in time completely worth it. These six tracks show a band in the throes of transformation but with roots still firmly attached to their origins, and it makes for an album that’s a picture in time, one that’s bound to shift yet again on record three. For those also immersed in transformation and growth, this is a record that can live alongside you on that journey, injecting your spirit with much-needed inspiration.   

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/vemodmusic

To buy the album, go here: http://lnk.spkr.media/deepening

For more on the label, go here: https://en.prophecy.de/