Essential Albums: Ulver - Kveldssanger
Ulver’s “Kveldssanger” (1996) - the Norwegian black metal band’s completely acoustic folk album that shocked the scene and created the blueprint for dark folk.
The Story Behind Kveldssanger
The album was recorded at Endless Lydstudio, Oslo, Norway in the summer and autumn of 1995, with Kristian Romsøe as engineer and co-producer. This was Ulver at their most audacious—a band barely out of their teens making a decision that could have destroyed their burgeoning career.
For Kveldssanger, the second part of what has become known as Ulver’s “Black Metal Trilogie,” the band expanded upon the quiet, folk-influenced acoustic elements present in their debut album, Bergtatt. Incorporating classical guitars, cello and choral chamber chants overlaid with subtle orchestral landscapes - eschewing any black metal elements - the album was a drastic contrast to Bergtatt and other black metal albums of the time, while still retaining the atmospheric and folk themes that made their debut special.
The driving force behind Kveldssanger was guitarist Håvard Jørgensen (also known as Lemarchand), whose vision for acoustic Nordic folk would define the album’s sound. Vocalist Kristoffer Rygg (known as Garm), who formed Ulver at age 16, possessed a wide range of vocal textures and styles, ranging from baritone, countertenor to clean, ethereal chanting—all of which he employed on this album.
Rygg has since remarked that Kveldssanger, despite strong content, was an “immature attempt at making a classical album.” The album was praised for its atmosphere, evoking a feeling of quiet, eerie solitude. This self-criticism only adds to the album’s mystique—even the band recognized they were attempting something beyond their experience, yet the result transcended their intentions.
The Sound of Dark Folk Perfection
Kveldssanger works because it doesn’t sound like a metal band trying to be folk—it sounds like ancient Norwegian folklore given musical form. The album’s title as well as all the lyrics are written in the style of archaic 19th century Dano-Norwegian. This wasn’t affectation; it was complete immersion in Norway’s romantic past.
Cultural Context in 1996
Kveldssanger arrived during black metal’s most controversial period. This was 1996—the church burnings were still fresh in public memory, Varg Vikernes was in prison, and the Norwegian black metal scene was under intense media scrutiny. In this context, Ulver’s decision to release a completely acoustic album seemed almost defiant.
While Bergtatt is heavily rooted in Norwegian folklore, it features no anti-Christian themes, unlike the music of many of Ulver’s contemporaries, particularly Burzum and Darkthrone. Kveldssanger continued this approach, focusing on Norway’s pre-Christian past through music and language rather than ideology and violence.
The album proved that black metal’s connection to Norwegian folk tradition could be explored through beauty rather than just brutality. While their peers were competing to be the most extreme, Ulver demonstrated that returning to folk roots could be just as radical—perhaps more so—than any sonic assault.
The album, alongside Bergtatt and the later Nattens Madrigal, formed Ulver’s canonical Trilogie, with each album representing a different aspect of their artistic vision—the folk-inflected black metal of Bergtatt, the pure folk of Kveldssanger, and the raw black metal fury of Nattens Madrigal.
Why Kveldssanger Is Essential
First, Kveldssanger established the template for dark folk and neofolk as legitimate subgenres. Before this album, acoustic music from metal bands was often dismissed as interludes or experiments. Ulver proved that a completely acoustic album could carry the same emotional weight and artistic vision as any metal release.
Second, it demonstrated that extreme metal bands could radically reinvent themselves between albums without losing their identity. This creative fearlessness would become Ulver’s signature—after completing their black metal trilogy, they would go on to explore electronic, ambient, and avant-garde music, always with the same uncompromising vision.
Finally, the album’s influence extends far beyond dark folk. You can hear Kveldssanger’s DNA in everything from Agalloch’s folk explorations to the rise of atmospheric black metal to contemporary artists who blend traditional instrumentation with extreme metal sensibilities. The album proved that metal’s connection to folk traditions could be genuine rather than superficial.
The fact that guitarist Håvard Jørgensen later created his own solo project HAAVARD as “a legitimate follow-up to ULVER’s folkish excursion into acoustic sounds,” featuring Kristoffer Rygg on vocals decades later, proves the lasting power of what they created together on Kveldssanger.
Essential Info:
• Release Date: March 1996
• Genre: Dark Folk, Neofolk, Acoustic
• Length: 13 Songs, Duration: 35 minutes
Musicians:
• Kristoffer Rygg (Garm) - Vocals, composition
• Håvard Jørgensen - Acoustic guitar, composition
• AiwarikiaR - Drums, flute
• Alf Thore Johansen - Guitar
• Hugh Steven James Mingay - Bass, keyboards
• Kristian Romsøe - Engineer, co-producer
The Sound Vault Verdict
Kveldssanger is that rare album that makes darkness feel like a sanctuary rather than a threat. At a time when extreme metal was defined by aggression and volume, Ulver created something that proved intensity could be achieved through intimacy and vulnerability.
This is essential listening not because it’s a perfect folk album, but because it reimagined what extreme metal artists could accomplish when they followed their artistic vision without compromise. Instead of making a “softer” album, Ulver made something that required more courage than any blast beat—the courage to be completely exposed.
In our current moment of genre-blending and musical boundary-pushing, Kveldssanger reminds us that the most radical artistic statements often come from subtraction rather than addition. This album proved that removing all the expected elements of extreme metal could create something even more powerful than any sonic assault.
Twenty-eight years later, it still sounds like a transmission from another time—which is exactly what Ulver intended.