New album, “Bleknat Bortom Evig Tid”, out on December 6th!
Since bursting from the void in 2019, Greve have become a gold standard for classic, second-wave Swedish black metal seemingly decades removed from anything resembling modernity. Which should come as little surprise given that Greve were yet another band helmed by Ancient Records linchpin Swartadauþuz (Bekëth Nexëhmü, Gnipahålan, Musmahhu, Trolldom, Daudadagr, Secrets et. al.). Much like most / all of Swartadauþuz’s projects are blessed with an intrinsically ancient sound, so, too, did Greve with a breathtakingly spectral ‘n’ stargazing style of black metal mysticism, displayed in full-length form first on 2019’s Nordarikets Strid and then 2022’s Föllo af Svavel, Lifvets Dimridå.
Dependably, when that modernity begins to become too suffocating, Swartadauþuz returns – now with Greve’s third full-length, Bleknat Bortom Evig Tid. With Korgath joining him on vocals for the second straight record, Greve continue to push their sound to the hinterlands of their imagination – and even deeper into the past. Whereas its towering predecessor wielded both beauty and menace in a denser and more-aggressive soundfield, Bleknat Bortom Evig Tid surges and decelerates to a more skeletal and yet somehow-more-immediate framework. To be sure, this is the clearest Greve have sounded to date, with a crisp and sparkling soundfield heightening that skeletal aspect; also to be sure, Swartadauþuz’s songwriting has rarely been this concise and compact, even when still stretched to eight minutes per song, nor has his melodicism held such a yearning quality. This lateral development pays off in spades, serving to expand the Greve world whilst keeping their core values intact. Where labyrinths once unfolded into ever more labyrinths, Bleknat Bortom Evig Tid offers the listener wide-open spaces and a direct path to the horizon: Atmospheric Black Metal Art (Exclusively) for dreamers and lone wolves alike!
