Arvas hail from Norway and were originally formed during the first half of the nineties as Örth by V-Rex aka Vassago aka Willie (ex-Ancient, ex-Aeternus, ex-Frozen Cries, ex-Dødsfall, ex-Cold Eternity). Örth recorded an album with legendary producer Pytten at the legendary Grieghallen Studio, but it was never released officially. The band was put to rest (the suicide of member Grim, whom you might know as well from his collaboration with notorious bands like Gorgoroth, Aeternus and Borknagar, played an important role as well in the decision to split up). However, it didn’t take that long, and soon V-Rex reformed the band under the current moniker. After a couple of years, the band split up once again, but reformed little later for a second time. So it took quite a time before Arvas came up with officially releasable stuff. In 2009 there was a split with Hordagaard, followed by a first full length, called Blessed From Below… Ad Sathanas Noctum. Last year, Arvas joined ATMF’s roster, and this collaboration results in the release of a second full studio album, called Into The Realm Of The Occult.
And once again, this album pays tribute to the nastiness of the Second Wave, i.e. the glorious scene from the earlier nineties, when corpse-painted faces weren’t that stupid yet. Into The Realm Of The Occult is a forty minutes + assault with a typifying Scandinavian approach, and with a nice balance of melody and aggression. The sound is massive and powerful, yet decently un-clean and sharp-edged. The tempo varies a lot, but it maintains a focus on lightning-fast brutality. And when it comes to the equilibrium in between instrumental and vocal contribution at the one hand, and the contrast melody versus warlike aggression at the other, one might think this band is a Swedish one rather than a Norwegian one. But it does not matter (at all!), for the apocalyptic bleakness and morbid grimness exhale the purest essence of the True Underground (even though the whole might not be so intensively anti-commercial; but aren’t we all part of a capitalistic community; but that is, once again, another discussion, not to waft right here, right now).
Into The Realm Of The Occult exhales tradition in the typical Scandinavian ethos, lacking of modern progression, yet effecting with the most evilised primal fundaments that did (and still do) glorify the Nordic scene.