Review
Instead of relying on standard black metal blast beats, Trelldom strips away the genre's familiar distortion in favor of unhinged saxophone runs and eerie spoken-word delivery. On ...By the Word..., frontman Gaahl leads his group far from their orthodox roots into what critics describe as "blackened psychedelic jazz metal".
The critical consensus highlights the record's dramatic departure from traditional extreme music. Kjetil Møster’s saxophone often acts as "as much of a lead vocalist as Gaahl", establishing a strange dialogue over spacious, unhurried drumming. Rather than delivering a wall of harsh noise, the album operates with some songs offering "more of an insinuation of heaviness than the presence of such". Critics describe the resulting texture as "dramatically anxious and chamberlike", leaving the listener to wade through a "ponderous air" of unresolved tension.
Rather than chasing structural safety, the compositions willfully dissolve into avant-garde jazz and deconstructed ambient passages. It is a demanding work of psychoactive tension that deliberately chooses unresolved unease over comforting resolution.
