Shiny Pennies || Angantyr - Et Varsel Om Død

I have put off my Shiny Pennies column for too long. I think it’s been about four weeks since my last one, and for that I apologize. Unless of course you think this column is stupid, in which case you may stop reading now.

Angantyr. Not quite sure how to pronounce this one but that’s not relevant -- you can’t hear me  say it wrong anyway. I was turned on to this guy by a brother in arms who runs the Morbid Tabernacle (Metal Call-Out neither endorses nor encourages illegal downloads). Angantyr the name of the Dutch one-man black metal project of Ynleborgaz whom you may or may not know from his work in a little band called Make a Change... Kill Yourself. If that turns you off (as it did me) hang in there for a moment and left me finish. 

I’ve never actually heard Make A Change... Kill Yourself, and they might actually be really good, I don’t know. Their name... just... it makes it hard for me to want to listen, you know? And don’t even pretend you haven’t judged a book by it’s cover before. I recently talked to a guy who hadn't ever listened to Imperium Dekadenz because he thought there name sounded “stupid”.  I’ll give him that, but he also doesn't know what he’s missing. ID are freaking amazing! But look,  here I am off topic again, I’ve been doing that a lot today. We are not here to talk about Make a Change... Kill Yourself or Imperium Dekadenz. What I am driving at is that Angantyr does not sound like you would think Make A Change... does, assuming you hadn’t heard them before. Make sense?  

Angantyr is, simply put, amazing. I took an almost instant liking to the album Hævn and in each subsequent listen I find myself loving it even more. It’s raw, and grim, and hateful -- everything black metal should be. But it’s also more than that. It’s beautiful, and epic and even sad sometimes -- something most wouldn’t associate with black metal. Don’t bother listening to the track above if it will sit in the back of 10 open windows and a phone call. This is not background music. This is music you have to let soak in, you have to apply yourself to. 

I decided not to stream the one track on the album that really sealed the deal for me in terms of my man-crush on this band. In part because I’m hoping to motivate everyone that reads this to check it out on their own and because it is over seventeen minuets long and might not fit in our media player. Instead, this is the first track on the record, Et Varsel Om Død, which sets the mood nicely and from which I think you will get the general idea. Enjoy!