Country of origin:Italy
Location:N/A
Status:Active

Formed in:N/A
Genre:Ambient/Black Metal
Lyrical themes:Legends, Folklore, Mythology
Current label:Nocturnal Brights Distribution and Production
Years active:N/A

DISCOGRAPHY

Wondering About the Silence of the Forest Demo 2003
Swastika Full-length 2003
Runa Full-length 2003
Black Metal Egemony Full-length 2004

current line up

Morkavind All instruments, Vocals

REVIEWS

Horrible Ambient, Even Worse BM - 5%
XuL_Excelsi, September 13th, 2010
Here we have an entirely pointless album, offering no musical value in ambience or in black metal. The songs alternate, without fail, between ambience and black metal tracks. There is really nothing to dissect here, the black metal songs are horribly discordant and distorted abortions infused with punk, essentially raw black metal a la Darkthrone meets Anal Cunt. All the BM tracks consist of 1 or, at most, 2 riffs, repetitive double-timed drums and painful screaming vocals barely classifiable as black metal shrieks. I doubt even elitist fans of Darkthrone and Satanic Warmaster would find any of these tracks bearable.

The ambient tracks are basically Nadja songs on fast-forward, but with no expression or direction. Considering the short duration of the tracks, one would understand why this ambience fails to create any semblance of progression or even any ambience at all. All ambient tracks, with the exception of “Algiz”, are completely devoid of any substance.

It appears this is a concept album about Norse mythology and ancient runes, but Swastika shouldn’t have bothered. If Morkavind felt the urge to preach to or enlighten the world about his beliefs, a poem or essay would have sufficed. Perhaps followers of his culture would better understand the point of this album, as all of it is incomprehensible to me. For the rest of us, calling “Runa” an album that contains music is a mistake.

Swastika has achieved quite a feat here, managing to simultaneously insult the exclusive genres of ambience and black metal in one album. None of the songs properly qualify to be compared with other artists in ambience or BM at all. It is a terribly tone-deaf mess where the structure (or lack thereof) is unsettling and infuriating in the worst way. Morkavind even throws in a random sub-par drum solo near the end of the album with “Ehwaz”. Presumably he got bored and needed a filler track.

This album is truly a colossal waste of time and has no substance or value whatsoever. Perhaps Swastika was taking the piss, or perhaps he seriously thought he was creating an album that people would listen to, either way he failed miserably and I urge all to avoid “Runa” at all costs. The fact that Swastika somehow got a record deal at all is actually commendable, and that saves this album from getting a zero rating.