So Much for Nothing – Livsgnist (2012)

As an early candidate of Black Metal release of the year, today we have So Much for Nothing’s debut full-length “Livsgnist”. This two-man outfit does an excellent job in taking Suicidal Black Metal into a whole new level, and will surely take years for any band to rival with Erik Unsgaard and Uruz have achieved with this album. Featuring seven tracks and around 50 minutes of gut-wrenching depressive music, this is the kind of release that will leave a deep impact on your psyche and will not easily be forgotten.

Having people like Niklas Kvarforth and Peter Huss of Shining, Julianne Kostøl of Pantheon I, Trondr Nefas of Urgehal, and Seidemann of 1349, among many others as guest musicians, So Much for Nothing is the equivalent of Ayreon and Avantasia in the realm of Black Metal. With a excellent foundation provided by Unsgaard and Uruz, this release takes things to a completely different plane of existence and almost achieves musical perfection.

Opening with crushing riffs, “Suicide-Syndrome” brings forth some saxophone sections (courtesy of Dag Stiberg) that will creep you out since the first moment. With a very slow and painful pace, this song is very engaging and will remind you of older Lifelover and similar bands. The combination of shrieks with clean and spoken vocals is just outstanding and creates a feeling of helplessness that we haven’t heard in a long time. The bass guitar line is very effective and solo at the end of the track is just magical.

Things get a bit more hectic with “One Last Night”, a track that packs a lot of punch in a short amount of time. The spoken vocals make their appearances again and nicely set the tone for the song. “Perfect” delivers a more traditional Rock approach to things, with ‘catchy’ chorus sections and very ‘heavenly’ vocal sections (reminded us to the clean vocals in Ancient’s “Cainian Chronicle” album).  The hypnotic bass guitar section paired with that creepy movie sample greatly enhances the crazy atmosphere of this song.

“Suffer in Silence” is probably one of the best songs we every listened to, and it nicely sits in the middle of this CD with its glorious 12 minutes of pure sadness. Opening with a beautiful (and very depressive) neo-classical section of cellos and violins (provided by Julianne Kostøl and Ingvild Sareeta Kaare respectively), this track nicely sets you up for a very big emotional fall. Once the guitars kick in, the pace and mood of things changes a bit but only for the worse (and by this we mean better), Nikals Kvarforth vocals come forward with all their eeriness. Things suddenly change in the acoustic interlude of this track that features another movie sample and some very creepy whispers and moans, this just gets better once the string instruments come back alongside creepy vocals, the bass guitar line and soaring distorted guitars. We are sure our description of this track is far from the actual emotional rollercoaster you will experience with it, but we gave it our best shot at describing perfection.

After being emotionally drained by “Suffer in Silence”, “My Precious” and “Livsgnist” are other excellent songs that continue the depressive onslaught set forth by this release since the first track. The closer “New Life – New Beginning” delivers very unusual jazzy sections with sax (or trumpets) that are very interesting to hear. The guitars keep pummeling through and nicely roundup one hell of an album.

If you like bands like Lifelover, Lantlos, Bethlehem, and similar minded Black Metal outfits, So Much for Nothing will surely blow you away. The band’s ability to delivering punishing tracks that will depress the crap out of you is unparalleled. It is very amazing to hear the guest appearances actually providing some depth to the music rather than just ‘doing what they are told’. Get “Livsgnist” if you want your taste in music to never be the same and nothing to ever be good enough as this.

Release: January 16th, 2012

Country: Norway