The realm of Atmospheric Black Metal has yet another band in its world, and their name is GRAÅNDE.  Not much is known about this band, except that they are from Sweden and currently consist of two people: Nichil as the vocalist and Nachtzeit on instrumental duties.  About two months ago, on May 19th, GRAÅNDE released their first ever record: a self-titled EP via Swedish record label Nordvis Produktion.  After taking the time to listen to the 22 ½ minute-EP, I can honestly say that it is definitely a piece of Atmospheric Black Metal.  On the other hand, however, it was not quite what I expected.

To begin, the EP "Graånde" is about 22 ½ minutes long but only has two tracks, "Sjöar ovan" and "Evighetens kvarn." Therefore, both tracks were definitely-perhaps unnecessarily-long, and this is where my first complaint is placed.  "Sjöar ovan" is nearly 14 minutes long, while "Evighetens kvarn" clocks up to 8 minutes and 48 seconds.  The lyrics are entirely in Swedish, but there's no room for complaint about that.  For those who don't know the language, they use a translation tool to interpret the words and meanings of the songs.  Needless to say, listening to the extremely lengthy songs on "Graånde" will require a little patience.

"Sjöar ovan" is a 13 minute and 49-second-long track that translates to English as "Lakes above."  Once the lyrics are translated, it won't take long to determine that they're actually quite haunting.  The lyrical meaning of "Sjöar ovan" seems to be related to death, darkness, and nature-all of which give the song an "atmospheric" theme.  The instrumentals also give the song its Atmospheric Black Metal sound, with not only typical instruments like guitars and drums, but also the use of synthesizers and keyboards.  Unfortunately, this is where my next complaint begins.  While Nachtzeit's instrumentation is well within the parameters of Atmospheric Black Metal, the instrumental fills far outweigh the number of lyrics in "Sjöar ovan." In fact, from around the 10th minute all the way to the end, there are no lyrics whatsoever.  Also, while it is common for blast beat usage to be rare in this particular subgenre of Black Metal, there were no blast beats at all in this track.  Nothing, nada.

The second and final track-the more reasonably lengthy "Evighetens kvarn"–opens up with a consistent and expertly executed blast beat.  Translated as "The Mill of Eternity," this approximately 9-minute track is also dark in tone.  With similar themes of death and darkness, there's also a little talk about torment, which is definitely synonymous with the art of Black Metal.  The chorus line "att malas I evighetens kvarn," or "to be ground in the mill of eternity," is absolutely haunting and torturous to the innocent mind.  As for the balance of instrumentation and lyrics, I found it fairly more balanced than that of its predecessor.  However, since "Evighetens kvarn" is still a very long song, there was still an imbalance between the work of Nachtzeit and Nichil.

"Graånde" is the debut record of the duo with the same name, as well as a solid effort.  If it was really their intention to come out with an Atmospheric Black Metal sound, then they did an amazing job.  By the same token though, for an EP with only two songs, I don't think Nachtzeit and Nichil had to make the songs as lengthy as they did.  There are other metal EPs out there with more songs and shorter track lengths.  The production could have also been a little better, as the vocals and instruments sounded slightly muffled throughout the record.  It is unknown for now how long GRAÅNDE has been around, but this is their first record.  Therefore, there is always room and time for improvement, so I look forward to seeing how this duo fares with their next record.