Evig Natt – Vaketimen
Evig Natt – Vaketimen
Wormholedeath
Release Date – 20/02/26
Review by Jon Deaux
7.5/10
Let’s take a second to appreciate the finesse of absurdism that’s at work here. Listening to Norwegian Doom Metal in 2026 feels like going to a funeral where people are fighting over the buffet, but “Vaketimen”, the fifth studio album of Karmøy’s most joyful people exports, is playing as the soundtrack to your impending doom and the final insult of the universe as it looks upon your meager efforts to grasp what’s going on here; that utterly morbid sense of obligation to witness an album as calculated in its apocalypse as “Vaketimen” that you start wondering if someone in Evig Natt owes you a personal apology.
This isn’t the run of the mill misery-core outfit selling misery to thrill-seeking depressive losers. No, Evig Natt, who have been plugging away since 2003, with an atmosphere so depressed that Bergen sounds like Ibiza, want to make you feel miserable, orchestrally. It’s like trying to think deeply about the meaning of life while some lunatic screams “it’s all pointless” in your ear, while in the background, an entire orchestra of black-clad doomsayers sets their orchestral sheet music on fire. What started out as another palette of Industrial Doom music shifts to being slowly squished by a chandelier made of frozen tears while some very articulate storm cloud seduces you.
Kirsten Jørgensen’s vocals are spine-chilling – think of a Valkyrae that just remembered she left the oven running at Valhalla or, better yet, a banshee with a law degree yelling at you like you’re crazy with the gravity of having been to the precipice of sanity and gone back to warn everyone else that “Nah, you know what? Not today. I’m good where I am, thank you very much. Down in this abyss?” Her voice runs smooth across this disc like cold butter across slabs of wet stone. There are jumps from ethereal operatic crooning to guttural growls. Stein Sund’s supporting vocals are like earth torn open, gravel and dread-filled. His bass rumbles at you like tectonic plates settling old scores. They’re singing to a dying world – and they’re the death knell.
‘Shimmer’ is a sadistic joke that tricks you into thinking that there actually is some good in the world before stripping that away quicker than you can manage to whisper “Scandinavian seasonal affective disorder” under your breath. The orchestration is one of those arrangements that pretends to be high-brow but really wants to bludgeon you with cellos. It’s beautiful. It’s unstoppable. ’Last of the Light’ tracks along and you’re reminded that this title is no longer merely a warning—there actually is no light. The guitar work from Tangjerd and Osnes squirms along like chains dragging across the floor, pulling everything down into the darkness with it, as depression tries new and unexpected ways of surprising you.
Track three comes with the rather literal title “Death” because nobody ever said subtlety was an option for cowards and the uninitiated, for those who don’t possess the knowledge that being a fan of Doom Metal is a 24/7 thing – you’re already immersed in it up to the knees in the afterlife, wondering how long the party’s gonna last. Spoiler: it won’t be over anytime soon. What Evig Natt has managed to grasp is the essence of the matter – if you’re gonna force people to wade through seventy-something minutes of existential crisis, at least make it look good. Suffering in HD.
The Norwegian-language songs, “Når lyset svikte” (“When the Light Fails”) and “Gråtaslaget” (“The Battle of Tears”), are what give the songs that extra special touch, that feeling that you are not simply sad, but sad with a certain level of historical significance, sadness with a certain level of Viking-blooded legitimacy. Evig Natt forgoes subtlety altogether here, descending into crushing despair. The orchestral work here is no longer a mere accompaniment, but a tool for an existential futility that smashes against your eardrums like a sledgehammer.
The album title “Sorrow My World” is the sort of thing that would get you laughed out of any other genre, but in orchestral gothic Doom Metal, it is practically the epitome of understatement. The music is like being smothered in velvet – sickly pleasurable in a variety of weights, especially the guitars and the beat. It is Doom Metal without being tedious, atmospheric without being up its own atmospheric arse.
“In the Darkness” isn’t merely in love with the darkness; it makes love to it. It provides an intimate look at the lesser appreciated darker corners of nihilism. And yet, you still can’t look away. What’s really impressive, however—and I say this as someone who believes that most Symphonic Metal is merely regular Metal with a dressy bow—is that Evig Natt manages to steer clear of most of the obvious traps. The orchestration never overpowers the songs. “Eahparas” is like being chewed alive by your own despair. And, you know, that’s really the whole point.
The last track, “At the End of the Night,” is the moment when Evig Natt lets the darkness envelop them completely—slowly, incrementally, like the end of a nightmare that you don’t want to wake up from, but know you’re about to anyway. It stumbles to a conclusion with all the dignity and finesse of someone who’s found a measure of peace with their inner demons, and then immediately regrets the decision because they won’t have anything to say to people at parties.
And then, of course, there’s the real beauty of “Vaketimen”: it’s not just an album, it’s a purging. A purging of all pretences, of all hope, of all belief that things will get better. Because for all the anger and aggression, Evig Natt has managed to put something together that feels personal. You can feel every note, as though you’re crawling through the ashes of your own soul. This is not an album for the faint of heart. This is not an album for people who believe that maybe, just maybe, things will get better. Because they won’t. The light has gone as far as it ever would, and it probably got devoured by one of those titanic riffs.
Is Vaketimen the kind of album that needs to be heard? Only if one believes the universe is a joke and the punchline is violin strings. Beyond that rather limited audience, there is something precious in the utter lack of a payoff to be found within. Evig Natt remain exactly as they have been all along: too symphonic for the purist, too downtuned for the lightweight fan of the genre, and just right for the sorts of fans who like our Metal like we like our winters: long, dark, and unyielding.
This isn’t an album that cares whether or not you’re ready for it, and that’s exactly why it’s so effective. “Vaketimen” is either the score to the crisis of existential dread that is going to ravage your soul, or it’s the impetus that gets you to throw in the towel once and for all; either way, it’s going to be a wild time, like staring into the abyss, except the abyss has decent production values and a really expensive orchestra.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Shimmer
02. Last of the Light
03. Death
04. Når Lyset Svikte
05. Gråtaslaget
06. Sorrow My World
07. In the Darkness
08. Eahparas
09. Tallemaja
10. At The End Of The Night
LINKS:
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