In the end of the rainbow....

Ved Buens Ende.... - I sang for the swans (mp3)
Ved Buens Ende... (In The End Of The Rainbow...) is a supergroup of Norwegian blackmetallers from bands such as Dodheimsgard, Aura Noir, Audiopain and Beyond Dawn. They have released only one full length "Written in waters" (the worst attempt of making metaphysically "deep" album cover) and one EP. It's hyperinventive experimental rock with blackmetal background. The sound is highly original, there is no comparison to it in the metal world. When compared with another openminded Norwegian BM group Fleurety, it's obvious how far from black metal Ved Buens Ende actually is. There is that certain melancholic feeling, which always follows the metal music. And there are those aggressive and raw sounds. But it's all done with a different touch. It's pretty close to postrock, but with a dark gothic and doomy edge. Well, it can be called post-blackmetal, but it's different from all those other bands that are considered to represent that style, because most of them (Peccatum, Arcturus, Solefald) have symphonic touch, but it's not present here.

I remember the first time when I listened to Ved Buens Ende, I was extremely impressed how proffessionally skilled those musicians are. Musicians who have some background of studying in music schools, have much more knowledge about the possibilities of selfexpression. I mean, if somebody has really studied playing drums, he has to know about different rhythms - how to play shuffle, bossanova or whatever. And if this musician is creative also, he knows how to use this knowledge. I can't say that there aren't metal bands with skilled musicians - it's opposite to that. Playing even very average sounding metal demands good sense of rhythm and a lot of physical control. But there's enormous lack of original ideas. Trapped in all those cliche's it seems that there are some kind of dogmas - certain things that all the metal bands must do. And no questions asked! There are many bands with enormous potential, but they just can't break out of that. And that's how Ved Buens Ende is different from all the rest. They have all the instrumental skills and they know how to use them in new direction.

The sound production is interesting. The sounds are warm, full and raw, it's hard to point out why, but the overall sound has that certain postrock feel. It's like a good tasty meal, where everything is in balance and some ingredients are kept in secret, so it's impossible to tell why it tastes so good. The vocals are most of the time clean, but the singing style is very eccentric. The texts are in english and sometimes they are sang intentionally with a strange accent. It seems as if the singer is trying to sound like an old man with trembling voice. In few songs there are also parts with thin and cold sounding shrieking vocals. And of course, it's already self-evident that all the guitar and percussion parts are very inventive. There's nothing average or traditional in them. It seems that everything is deconstructed to the basic elements and then built up again with a pure joy of experimenting.