Illinoisian Thunder - 2007
6/10
Tjolgtjar, a band name that I'm so glad I don't need to pronounce out loud, is a one-man black metal act out of Illinois that sticks to the raw side of the genre, having been around for almost three decades now. Like most projects of its type, there are so many albums to pick from, and you can guess I landed on Halloween strictly because of its theme around the film franchise. Having hit the scenes in 2007, it's the third full-length fronted by the one who calls himself The Reverend.
Being as upfront as I can, under the surface, Halloween is musically about as generic as this style of black metal can get. Degraded riffing that screams "recorded in a basement," with simplistic beats and throaty shrieks are much of the game's name. Double-tracked vocals give it a little more depth (using that word rather liberally), working a lot of tremolos into the faster parts that blend into the calmer notes held together only by the horrid production. Said production is its main consistency in execution, as there is very little in the realm of transitions, and most of the songs segments are lobbed together, broken up by occasional black metal intensity or over-the-top shrieks that up the unsavory feeling. In just about every way, you can't get anymore "generic raw black metal" than this, except for the elephant in the room.
The Halloween themed songs are the obvious appeal, which should be no surprise. Most of the tracks simply mix in parts of the John Carpenter score in rough guitar form, throwing lyrics to some of them, and then elaborating with the occasional solo or riff-break. Songs like "Judith Myers" tell the story of the character under the backdrop of "Laurie's Theme" (despite "Laurie Strode" being its own song), "Night Of The Living Dead" is simply the movie's theme played in a low-fi metal style, "The Shape" takes down the bass-heavy suspense music from the movie's end and uses it as a rhythm section, etc. Others actually opt for a more original approach, like "The Haddonfield Babysitter Murders" telling the story over The Reverend's own music, as does the "Mask Of Michael Myers." However, the true standout to me is the closing "Silver Shamrock," a literal black metal cover of the TV Commercial used in Halloween III set to the tune of "London Bridges," an absolutely jarring choice but one that I'm not complaining about.
But as much as I absolutely adore the Halloween films, I can't sit here and call the third Tjolgtjar effort great. Fans of the franchise should absolutely give this a listen for no other reason than to fulfill a piqued curiosity, and I really appreciate how fun the idea is. Otherwise, if those films mean nothing to you, then this will probably simply be "another one" to the raw black metal enjoyer, or straight up unappealing to those who aren't into that.
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