Welcome to Infernal Visions, a column where I review an album and pull a tarot card, oracle, or rune called forth by said album, sharing my interpretation of the card and how I feel it relates to the music. Let us bring together distortion and divinity. This week’s calling is atmospheric black metal album A Hopeless Dawn by Nordicwinter and Isa.
The Call: Nordicwinter – A Hopeless Dawn
Slowly layering sounds and techniques creating grandeur in cinematic tracks, Nordicwinter—the solo project of artist evillair—fills the cold void of winter in A Hopeless Dawn. The eight tracks take listeners on a journey through lands frozen in time and explore the flickering flame of light in darkness. Black metal with atmospherics, incorporating synths, strings, choral vocalization, and more create sweeping soundscapes by carefully adding and pulling out pieces for dynamic rises and falls. Bookended by two instrumental atmospheric tracks, the journey comes full circle and leaves listeners craving another expedition.
The album opens with harsh blowing winds and a keyboard melody in “Umbral Nocturne Part I.” Choir vocalization is soon added along with string-like synths. This melancholic introduction is stripped back down and fades to black before moving into the main body of A Hopeless Dawn. Two single releases proceeded this album, one being “Requiem for the Forgotten” which is easily a favorite track. It echoes the album’s opening intro with the same instrumentation before growls are heard, drums crescendo, and metal instrumentation is added. This continues until a quiet segment is heard five minutes in where orchestral strings take over with vocalization and a solemn ringing church bell is heard reverberating before the black metal intensity returns.
The second featured single is “Nocturne in Gray” which has an acoustic guitar in the opening and an atmospheric break about halfway through with gentle rainfall, cracks of thunder, and orchestral instrumentation. This grows to include blast beats and screamed vocals, fully blooming into something massive and new. “Beneath Frozen Skies” is another favorite track of mine with more classic black metal elements and a quieter bridge that where some deep ominous chants are heard. Soaring guitar tones, prominent drumming, and fantasy-like synths are at the core of this piece. A Hopeless Dawn closes with “Umbral Nocturne Part II,” bringing the journey to a peaceful conclusion.
I love my black metal with atmospherics or folk instrumentation – it breaks up the brutality and enhances the emotion. A Hopeless Dawn is beautifully made and having all music, lyrics, and instruments contributed by one person makes it all the more impressive. The six main tracks of the body of the album flow and blur together in a way that I do not mind with similar elements being reworked and presented in different ways with a sprinkling of new sounds. While each track is not particularly memorable on its own, the album as a whole certainly is and the cohesiveness makes for one 48 minute long vibe that is easy to fall into.
The Card: Isa
Isa is a part of Heimdall’s aett, that of the warrior and protector, and is associated with achievement, victory, power, money, and success. Meaning “ice,” this rune can indicate cold and stillness, symbolizing the neutrality of ice and rest before action. It also serves as a reminder of the life beneath the ice and what lies ahead. Isa shows a time of rest, solitude, and quiet. While it does show stagnation, it urges us to meditate, reflect, and pause to look in all directions before moving forward. Isa calls for self-awareness and control in the pause to gather knowledge before moving to action. Since it does not have a reverse position, it is a neutral rune and when pulled within a reading, tends to add to the significance of the other runes within a spread. If I pull Isa as a single daily pull, I take it as a sign to slow down and take time to recharge and gather my thoughts before making any big decisions. Sometimes it resonates more as indicating a period of being frozen or stuck and I take it to mean that I should sink into it and not worry because things will thaw and move soon.
I love this rune as a symbol for the band itself, Nordicwinter, but also in terms of A Hopeless Dawn, where the album themes are the vast solitude of forgotten landscapes, the fading light of winter, and the quiet distant voice of time passing. Frozen moments make way for grand, more energetic happenings and taking the time to pause and ruminate will make your dawn a little less hopeless and little more promising.
Blessed be.
–Angela
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