Reykjavík Grapevine - aug 2021, Qupperneq 24

‘Vítahrin!ur’ By
Mannveira
Once you start, there’s no turnin! back
Words: Erik Pomrenke & Mannveira Photos: Elvar Ö. Egilsson
Album
Pick up Mannveira’s ‘Vítahringur’
at record shops around Reykjavík
or online at darkdescentrecords.
bandcamp.com. You can also listen
to it on all streaming platforms.
At the origin of every genre lies a raw
energy that defies rules and norms,
but inevitably, even the most extreme
become restrained by convention.
Mannveira’s latest release—surpris-
ingly their debut, although the the
band has been around for 10 years—
rediscovers the purely manic misan-
thropy at the heart of black metal
with some new influences, including
some truly fucked up death indus-
trial ritual cult shit in the intro and
a generally more consonant and affir-
mative tone throughout. So if you’re
looking for a soundtrack for tearing
someone’s head off, here you go. We
sat down with the group to talk about
the album track by track.
Ópin rjúfa %ögnina
Originally this song was just a riff
that we jammed on during sound-
checks and used to fill our times-
lot, but we all felt that it deserved
to be worked on a bit. And after a
solid 45 minutes or so of collective
stankface and thumbs-upping,
we had a song. It‘s just the kind
of dirty, sinister mid-tempo ball
slapper that we all like, so it made
perfect sense as an opener to the
album.
Í köldum fa"mi
Setting the tone for the rest of the
album, “Í köldum fa!mi” is about
embracing self-destruction, i.e.
willingly digging your own grave.
The song itself flows surprisingly
well considering how many differ-
ent ideas were thrown at it. It also
wasn‘t supposed to be the longest
track of the album, but c‘est la vie.
The intro (as well as the rest of
the ambient breaks on the album)
were done in collaboration with
D.G., who was a tremendous help
in creating this album.
Vítahringur
“Vítahringur” was the
first song we started
writing on the album
way back in 2015. It‘s
a slow moving, heavy
mood-ruiner in case
anyone was having too good of a
time in the first half. It‘s also a
constant reminder of how long
it took to get this fucking album
done.
“Vítahringur” is also more or
less the idealistic hub of the entire
album—it’s all about finding sol-
ace in misery and the rude awak-
ening when you realize there is no
turning back.
It also has a guitar solo, which
is fun?
Framtí"in myrt
Akin to the idea of no turning
back, “Framtí!in myrt” is an ab-
stract ode to ensuring there is
no going back, as well as ruining
the path ahead. The years that it
took to get this album out into the
world squeezed some of the post-
teen angst and fury out of us, but
not all of it, so this song was sort
of inevitable. Possibly the least
dissonant track of the album with
probably the most nihilistic ideas
behind it. Then again, not a lot of
positivity throughout the album.
Kverkatak eilífra martra"a
Very much the conclusion of the
whole album, “Kverkatak eilífra
martra!a” is just an ugly, hateful
pit of riffs and misery that dis-
solves into nothing toward the
end. Very much a fitting end to
“Vítahringur” as a whole.
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24The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08— 2021
The latest strain of Mannveira
Track By Track
Btw, they had nothing to do with the Delta varient (or so they claim)
"‘Vítahringur’ is a
slow moving, heavy
mood-ruiner in case
anyone was having
too good of a time
in the first half.”