Review by Felix on April 10, 2021.

Of course you know that Svartsyn is one of these countless solo projects. The “band” is run by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Ornias. His only comrade-in-arms during the recording session of Black Testament was a drummer with the great pseudonym Hammerman. Frankly speaking, this name for a drummer borders on parody, but the crucial fact is that “Hammerman” delivers a proper double bass hailstorm and, more generally speaking, a dynamic performance. Yet it goes without saying that the quality of the album depends on the performance of Ornias.

His song-writing talent has always been more than sufficient. He does not belong to the best composers in terms of extreme metal, but he is competent enough to pen a genre jewel from time to time. His general approach results in songs that create a dark labyrinth of sinister emotions. Although he does not pray to the God of revolutionary progress, he writes impenetrable, deafening tunes with a surprising number of tempo shifts and breaks. Every now and then, the result is simply going nowhere or it falls victim to a blurred sound, but here we have at least one genre gem. 'Demoness With Seven Heads' combines the trademarks of Svartsyn in a glorious way: total darkness embraces weird melody lines, vehement drums celebrate tempo changes and increase the intensity of a song which is crowned by the demonic vocal performance. Each and every part blends seamlessly with the next one and thus a profound heaviness invites the listener to get lost in this labyrinth. Many thanks, I gladly accept the invitation.

No doubt, the aforementioned song in the centre of the album marks its climax. The other pieces present a partly thick, partly smoothly flowing approach. The guitars present line after line, the production fosters the density and compactness of the songs. Everything is in a good balance with the exception of the seemingly non-existent bass guitar. Yet this minor flaw can remain unrecognised. Unfortunately, there is another thing which slightly hurts the overall picture. While 'Demoness With Seven Heads' stands at the top of the ranking, a few of the other tracks fail to develop an own identity. 'Rising Beast' houses some characteristic lines and the same applies for 'Revelation In The Waters', 'Eyes Of The Earth' and the closer. The further two pieces – the pretty pointless intro can be neglected - have to struggle in order to leave a lasting impression. The density and homogeneity of the material is both curse and blessing in this context. It would not be fair to speak of a confusing approach during the less strong yet still passionately performed songs, but it is also true that they pass by without giving an overdose of outstanding impulses.

However, Black Testament avoids major deficiencies and it does not betray the spirit of the subgenre in any way. Quite the contrary, the full-length leads the audience very close to the essence of black metal and the authenticity of the music as well as the integrity of the artist behind this long-standing project cannot be doubted. The work from the year 2013 belongs to the best outputs in his discography and if you do not have an one-man-project allergy, the album can enrich your metallic existence.

Rating: 7.9 out of 10