Bergraven Streams New Album, "Till Makabert Väsen," Out This Week on Hydra Head!

Sweden's Bergraven fit under the black metal umbrella just at the edge, enough to keep part of its shoulder dry while the rest is soaked with outside influence. And while 2007's Dödsvisioner fooled around with the genre enough to warrant attention (and not to mention make a great, complex, dense metal record), the band's followup – Till Makabert Väsen – features only fragments of black metal, and even those are diluted by mainmanonlyman Pär Gustavsson bottomless pot of strangeness. But while Väsen is even more dense and bizarre than Dödsvisioner, it pays off just as big when given the time, because much like its predecessor, it's a record that requires your time and attention. It's not an album about beauty or Vikings, but instead obsessed with its own ugliness, dropping a major chord or big chorus in just when things are on the verge of being too displeasing for too long. This is hardly a conventional metal record, and you'll be hard pressed to find another one that sounds like it; with Till Makabert Väsen, Bergraven continue their journey to the strange, unexplored parts of the psyche. - Metal Sucks

Till Makabert Väsen, Par Gustafsson's third full length as Bergraven, is like raising a kid and then having to be big enough to recognize when that same kid is better than you at running, shooting, rafting, gathering, football americano, sleding, oki noodling, and chicks... The entire one man metal band genealogy should be hitching their hiking thumbs to this one, if you catch my drift. Till Makabert Väsen, well encapsulates the mood/progressive nature of Dödsvisioner, Bergraven's previous full-length, and takes it one step further.

This time with a more diverse range of vocal treatments and a masterful approach to overall song structure, on Till Makabert Väsen, Par perfected his already unique rendering of Nordic chants and vehement growls. The real genius, though, is in Par's ability to give you just enough room to breath before elegantly knocking the wind right out of you... Only someone like Par, someone wholly proficient in all the necessary instruments, could do so in such a way that you know you can't be mad at the guy after the fact. We heart Bergraven and if you possess anything in the way of good taste so will you.

For more information, visit:
www.hydrahead.com
www.myspace.com/bergraven