The latest in Erik Skodvin’s ever-evolving repertoire under his Svarte Greiner moniker, “Kappe” has to be called second-generation acoustic doom. For unlike his debut, “Knive”, and the recent Elegi album on Skodvin’s own Miasmah imprint, “Kappe” is much more industrial, and less synaesthetic. The four long tracks are heavily texturized but they’re less concrete and less narrative than the releases just mentioned. Rather, if I’m not mistaken, the influence of the recent tape noise releases is evident (to which Skodvin has contributed himself with his “Penpals Forever” tape on Digitalis Limited).

That’s not to say that “Kappe” is less cinematic than the debut. Rather, the scope of Skodvin’s trademark bass drone and detuned strings is enhanced by industrial clatter, rattling chains and looped, feedbacked electric guitar. All of which takes the Svarte Greiner sound on a more abstract, and ultimately higher, level. Like leaving realism behind to move on to the realms of idealism. Not sure if that’s always a good thing, though, and it has taken me a while to appreciate this album, which, I would argue, is neither easy atmospheric background listening nor stereo-testing material. Instead, it demands full attention, and decent volume. Then, however, you’re sucked into the “Tunnel of Love” and washed away by the horribly epic “Mystery Man”. The two other tracks, “Candle Light Dinner Actress” and “Last Light” are more on the quieter, melancholic side, but they’re equally bleak. While “Kappe” is a trip of its own and a great document of Skodvin’s artistic resolution, it is only after listening to more conventional doom metal or noise that one is able to fully acknowledge this album’s achievements. 9/10 -- Jan-Arne Sohns (25 February, 2009)