Hexmyr - Öde Verser
Öde Verser means Deserted Verses, and it´s the name of the debut by a Swedish dark-ambient/death-industrial act called Hexmyr. It is also a reissue by Polish Label Fluttering Dragon, first released on cassette on Dovle Records in 2020. The label is run by the same guy behind the project. The reissue has come out on CD and vinyl.
The album's concept is about a specific location in Sweden called Norrland (and surrounding areas), which happens to be the artist's homeland. A place where forests have been destroyed, with empty and abandoned factories. A once-thriving community, which has been abandoned for the sake of industry and money. High suicide rates, rivers that have been drained, after-effects of uranium mining... You name it.
The CD comes in a darkened and cool-looking digipack. Having some photos with it, which show Norrland (I think). The album has 6 tracks on it, and runs for about 36 minutes in total.
The first track (just called I) works as a sort of intro to the album. A thundering big drum, the sound of a distant (and again huge) blowing horn with some harsh death-industrial noisescapes in the background. Sound is really dark and scary in a sort of... abandoned way. I can almost feel the silent and dead trees, and the windows of factories staring like dead eyes. Distorted and whispering vocals are there as well, giving the track an extra haunting feeling of despair. Really love the way the rhythms and the sounds develop later on. Howling cold winds and murky drums in the deep!
The second track, Avverkning (Interlude Pt.1), and the third track III start with a metallic sound of a... cold wind, the sort of wind that bites your toenails. Kind of a steel-on-stone sound to the wind. The kind of wind that blows through a mine? Murky bass-drones howl like tortured ghosts, and some strange microscopic sounds crawl on my speakers like spiders. Excellent and harsh noise elements are added, lovely abysmal feeling to this track... don´t stare too long into the abyss! Vocals are also here as well, it has a kind of Mental Destruction touch to it.
The fourth track, Dömda (Interlude Pt.2), is the harshest (so far) on the album. The sense, smell, and feel of black smoke... and something burning in the distance. U really get the feeling here, of how things are just... slowly falling apart out there, well, in the sticks.
The fifth track, V. Well, there really isn´t any hope left at this point. Again, the distant sound of something thundering, something feeling apart, an explosion, or the sound of the earth moving—mines collapsing and the landscape changing to something else.
The sixth (and last track) called VI. Slutet (Oestergaard Remix) has nothing to do with dancy rhythms... although it does say remix. It offers desperate and chopped-up ghost voices on the analog radio, spider legs on the microphone, and some slowly-droned and heavy ambient-drones as well.
Öde Verser is quite...Öde. The artist's intent (soundwise) in this work is quite accomplished, I think. I do get the sense of dread, and the sense of feeling alone in a place which (once) has been a thriving community (to a certain degree). Definitely that Northern CMI early 2000 feel/sound to it, the sound of Sephiroth/Desiderii Marginis.
I love the chosen concept of the album, but I do think that the focus on the chosen concept... should be a bit more focused? Some more recorded material that connects with the theme. Field recordings from the geographical areas could help, old actual radio recordings, when it was a thriving community. Everything seems to be gloomy and dark in Norrland, maybe a bit too much? If it is that dark in Norrland, then a bit more chaos and fragility in the sound (would be nice). I also came to think about that, when places/towns seem to shut down, nature usually takes over... which in my book is a good thing?
Other than that, if you choose to look away from the concept of the album, then u do have a decent and good industrial-ambient album with a touch of that CMI-sound.
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