Tracks 2 through 11 more or less dominate the album with their various explorations of the soundscape, as they all rely on the major chord progressions exploring the frostbitten landscape, with moments of intense beauty ("Nature's Church" and "Amber Lake") and moments of peril ("Northern Winds"). This album can be successfully divided into four parts: "Sunrise" signifies the beginning of the new day, and captures the glory of the sun rising over the cold earth. In this album, it seems as though the night is represented by the minor chords, fully enveloping the listener in the peril of Hardangervidda. Halfway through, the eerie atmosphere is dropped and beautiful major progressions kick in, which I believe signifies the sunrise. The album opens up with "Sunrise", which more or less throws the album a curveball first, beginning with minor chord progressions and an eerie atmosphere. The music on this disk paints a surprisingly uplifting soundscape, seeming to portray the simultaneous cold beauty and mysterious peril, splashed upon the canvas in a minimalistic and transcendental fashion. Hardangervidda is a mountain plateau in Våer's homeland of Norway, famous for its year-round alpine climate and gorgeous scenery. However, Ildjarn took me completely by surprise with "Hardangervidda", creating a sort of instrumental concept album, utilizing only synth and small amounts of percussion. So, hearing about what "Hardangervidda" was, an ambient album with no vocals, I was expecting another album like Velvet Cacoon's "Atropine" or Burzum's "Hliðskjálf", ambient but still relying on the black metal attitude of former albums, portraying a supremely dark sound. Ildjarn (aka Vidar Våer) is more or less known for his raw black metal approach, but it is not uncommon for black metal artists to make ambient albums. Review Summary: Raw black metal artist is capable of something truly beautiful.
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