Ormgard are a Swedish one-man project, created by Orm (aka Lord Thurisaz; also known from e.g. Myling, Wod, Tyrant etc.). Orm is also the guy behind Scythe Of Death Productions, the label that released Ormblot on tape in 2011. This demonstrational stuff had been done on vinyl too in 2013 (via Final Agony Records), and this re-issue is taken care of by Sweden’s Forever Plagued in digipack-edition, albeit limited to 1,000 copies.
The demo starts with an intro that I do really like a lot (title: Ormblot), albeit limited in originality and variation, but it gives me a feeling of more eeriness and darkness to come. And indeed, it does come.
As from Hugsad, Ormblot (the whole record, not the introduction) brings grim, horrific and obscure Black Metal-oriented muSICK with scarifying vocals (which do remind me to the Donald Duck-voices of Belgian act Avatar (there are tens of others with the very same moniker, but only the one from Belgium really rules of course); I do mean this as an ironic word-play for I was, and still am, enormously enthusiastic about Avatar’s album …Memoriam Draconis…; and that’s not a joke, I really am!). Atmospheric keyboard lines do play an important role, for giving the whole a feeling of utter obscurity and mysticism, transgressing the stuff into dimensions of ritualistic majesty and abyssal ambience. And yes, that is another comparison to make with Avatar’s sole release, …Memoriam Draconis… It might seem odd, but it’s the closest comparison I can get to. Elffor, Finnugor, early Emperor, Old Man’s Child, Nocturnal Majesty (another underestimated entity) etc.; this is the kind of purity, the essence Ormgard stand for. And that is what all this material stands for: horrific, obscure tunes of bleakness and despair, translated into hymns of grimness and dark rituals, f*cking with your virginal brain (hehe, if only…), and poisoning one’s stupid and naïve innocence w… [self-relativation and self-restriction…]…
And now a world-shocking statement: NEW STUFF SOON, PLEASE!!!