I don't claim to be a connoisseur of Black Metal by any means, but I like to think I know good Black Metal and I also know bad Black Metal. To the untrained ear there might be little to no difference between the two comparisons. This band are one of those strange mixes of both, they are neither good nor bad but simply tolerable. SVÄRTA hail from Sweden, one of the Motherlands of Black Metal. Gifting us with some Black Metal titans such as DARK FUNERAL, MARDUK, DISSECTION and of course, the Gods of them all, BATHORY.

The first track of the album "Bråddjupets Kall" starts off with some heavy double-kick drums and your typical fast, tremolo guitar riff with the odd black metal screams thrown in there. If you're going to listen to this band for the deep and meaningful lyrics (I'm not sure why you'd pick a Black Metal band for that) then you will be disappointed. If there are any lyrics at all, they are completely indecipherable, which is not a bad thing as we focus more on the music. This song runs almost seven minutes long and at around the four minute mark breaks into what could have been a completely different song. Why they decided to keep it as the same song is beyond me. It could have lengthened their six-song album considerably.

Three songs later we're greeted with the stand-out track of the album, "Våndans Hőgborg" at over nine minutes long it is the longest song on the album. It is far more melodic than the rest of the album and has an abundance of Doom-y elements to it which are the most recognisable after the five minute mark. The last minute or so of this song is purely ambience. I should probably say that this entire album has the beautiful, nostalgic "raw" Black Metal feel to it, which is almost reminiscent of early MAYHEM.

While I do like this album, nothing truly sticks out about it for me. They do what they do and they do it well. But for some reason it fails to click with me like it should. "Sepultus" ticks every box but fails to leave the boxes and produce something memorable. Although it is definitely an album one should have in their collection, it is truly a modern-day Black Metal album which summons the old school greats to stand by their side.