Weekly album: Skyforger - Latviešu strēlnieki

Skyforger - Latviešu strēlnieki

2000 / Pagan black metal

1. Latviešu strēlnieki

2.  Kauja pie Plakaniem, kauja pie Veisiem 

3. 1916. Gada marts 

4. Nāves sala

5.  Sešas ārprāta dienas

6. Pulkvedis Briedis

7. Tīreļa purvā

8. Esat kā vīri 

9. Dzīves vismelnākā stundā 

10. Uz kariņu bāliņš jāja

Orostider: Pagan black metal bands from Eastern Europe tend to offer the finest of the genre. Skyforger is not an exception. 'Latviešu strēlnieki' was the first Skyforger album I heard and even after familiarizing myself with their other albums, 'Latviešu strēlnieki' has kept it's place on the top. 

One of the major differences between for example, Nokturnal Mortum and Skyforger, is the scarcer use of 'overly' melodic and folky parts. Even though I love Nokturnal Mortum's way of doing pagan black metal, Skyforger's way allows the music to feel like a solid package of intensity. The scarcity of the folk influences mean that the album only has them in few song intros and lead passages. 

'Latviešu strēlnieki', which translates to 'Latvian Riflemen', is indeed an intense album and capable of creating massively heavy atmosphere. The intensity is done quite well and won't tire the listener, because the album is structured to vary from high tempo to slower chanting passages. The album endures repeated listens and the finest details of the album require several spins.

All in all, 'Latviešu strēlnieki' should be considered one of the cornerstones of its genre. It represents the more straightforward school of pagan black metal and shouldn't be forgotten due to its lack of folk melodies. 

Favourite songs: 'Latviešu strēlnieki', 'Sešas ārprāta dienas'

btcarey: At first glance, an average metal fan might overlook an album such as Skyforger’s  “Latviešu Strēlnieki”. The record isn’t especially technical, the vocals are a bit unorthodox, and the music leans towards a more light-hearted atmosphere than most folk/black metal acts. Even with these unusual approaches, “Latviešu Strēlnieki” still shines as a fun, approachable album with exceptional replay value.

The most unfortunate aspect of the record is the amount of spins it takes to truly appreciate it. The first two times I heard “Latviešu Strēlnieki” I was really not impressed, and if I wasn’t obligated, I probably would have tossed the album rite then. Lucky, I continued listening and the album grew stronger and stronger. “Latviešu Strēlnieki” really doesn’t start for me until the firework explodes in “1916 Gada Marts” (one of the strongest black metal pieces on the album), after which an onslaught of bone crushing riffs and folky goodness ensues.

One thing that really sets “Latviešu Strēlnieki” apart from other bands is there incorporation of thrash/heavy metal themes in an otherwise folk/black metal environment. Song’s like “Pulkvedis Briedis” and “Tīreļa Purvā” are remarkably heavy and had me head banging by the end.

Overall this is a great album and I would recommend it to any fan of folk/black metal.

Favorite Songs: “1916 Gada Marts”, “Pulkvedis Briedis”

tp5170: Skyforger is again one of those bands that didn’t really get me too excited when I heard their music for the first time, but after recently seeing the band playing live it kind of became clear to me what the band is actually all about. After the gig, I have been giving their album, ‘Latvian Riflemen / Latviešu strēlnieki’, some time and thought and I have to say that I like it a lot and it reflects nicely the things I liked about their live performance. It’s certainly a bit different from what I have come to expect from bands of the folk/pagan black metal genre in the past, but that actually works in its favor.

The songs are quite straightforward and tempo is relative high even in the slower songs. This gives the music a nice and energetic touch that lasts the entire album. The musical tone on the album can be quite aggressive and serious at times, but overall experience is still pretty light, despite the black metal influences. The music is highly entertaining and surprisingly approachable, which is probably why the band seems to be such a big deal in their home country, it winning rock/heavy awards and all.

But all in all, I think I have taken a liking to this album and I would suggest anyone interested in faster, not so serious black metal or folk/pagan black metal.  

Favorite song: Six Days of Madness / Sešas ārprāta dienas

Weekly album: Corpo-Mente - Corpo-Mente

Corpo-Mente - Corpo-Mente

2015  / Trip-hop, Experimental, Baroque

1. Scylla

2. Arsalein 

3. Fia

4. Velandi

5. Dorma

6. Dulcin

7. Equus

8. Ort

9. Saelli

10. Encell

Orostider: If an album would be presented to me by telling its core members are Gautier Serer, best known as his breakcore name Igorrr, and Laure Le Prunenec, known for doing appearances in Igorr songs and her solo project Rïcïnn, I would expect something rather complex and experimental material in the vein of Igorrr. Corpo-Mente is experimental and complex for sure, but it's almost as if it's the calm counterpart of Igorrr. 

Corpo-Mente uses trip-hop, baroque, opera, industrial and post-metal elements and much more and actually succeeds in creating a magnificently powerful and beautiful album with this recipe. The music itself does resemble Igorrr's material in a way, but as I said, Corpo-Mente is 'post-rock' in comparison to Igorrr. Instead of breakcore's noise-ish elements and speed, Corpo-Mente trusts emotional power, unexpected experimenting and a variety of sounds.

The balance between acoustic instruments and electronic instruments is excellent. One could believe that the mix Corpo-Mente is using would sound chaotic and out of place, but the result is actually the exact opposite. There's only minimal amount of chaos and the elements are in order. The way the songs are structured enables the listener to experience massive sensation of power and emotion. 'Arsalein' is probably the song where the massiveness is the clearest. The transition from tranquil parts to the distorted synth walls is just glorious. 

Laure's vocals are one of the main reasons why this album feels so powerfully emotional and wonderful. I tend to worship albums' instrumentations, but this time I'm forced to raise the vocals to the top. The songwriting and the instrumentation are perfect, that's not the point, but Laure's vocals are most likely the best female vocals I've heard. 'Corpo-Mente' is an album where the combination of top notch vocals and music results in an experience that can be revisited several times. 

Favourite songs: 'Arsalein', 'Velandi', 'Dorma'.

btcarey: If you’re looking for something a bit different, or “off the beaten path”, as far as music goes, Corpo-Mente might be right up your ally.  I’m not entirely sure how to define their genre, but the name is probably something artsy, hard to pronounce, and gives the listener no insight as to what they’re about to hear. That being said, I will call the genre “Electroperacoustigasam”….? I know I’m probably going to get shit on by people who really dig this stuff, but as an outsider the music this is as descriptive as I can get.

The music overall is pretty good. It is obviously well crafted and a lot of thought has been put into it. The beats/instruments are dark yet peaceful and the singer’s operatic voice could be described as heavenly; unfortunately, it’s just not my style. After several listening attempts I kept getting distracted. The music just wasn’t able to keep my attention, so I ended up letting it play in the background. This actually turned out to be the best move for me and kind of saved the album. Corpo-Mente makes some pretty kick-ass background music.

If you’re more into traditional musical styles or aren’t feeling very adventurous I would skip Corpo-Mente.  But if Electroperacoustigasam is your kind of music, definitely check this album out.

Favorite Songs: "Fia", "Velandi"

tp5170: I don’t really know what to call the style of Corpo-Mente or how to really describe the thing they are doing.  All I know is that there are these classical female vocals that keep adapting to the highly progressive thing going on at the same time. I can’t say that I have ever heard anything quite like it.

It surprised me was how relaxed I was after listening to the album, despite it not representing the style of music I usually go for. The odd atmosphere of the album and the way all the songs blend together are in my opinion its strong suits. The songs are quite strange, unpredictable and have a really dramatic touch to them, and despite being quite different from each other, they still keep the atmosphere intact almost flawlessly.

Though, I didn’t necessarily like every element or part of album, it didn’t really matter, because it’s the big picture that matters – and as a whole, Corpo-Mente is indeed a rather solid album.

Favourite songs: ‘Ort’, ‘Equus’ and ‘Arsalein’

Weekly album: Goatmoon - Voitto Tai Valhalla

Goatmoon -Voitto tai Valhalla

2014  / Folk Black Metal

1. Intro

2. Voitto tai Valhalla Part I 

3. Voitto tai Valhalla Part II: Valkoinen maa

4. Desecration

5. Way of the Holocaust Winds

6. And the Tears of Our Fatherland Fell

7. October's Blood

8. Vääräoppisen tuhovärssy 

9. Descent, Ascent and Conquer

10. Race of Heroes

tp5170: I was pretty sure that ‘Varjot’ was going to remain as the pinnacle of Goatmoon releases for a longer time as it was overall pretty decent album and also a step into a slightly different direction for the band. But despite being an improvement and having its moments, ‘Varjot’ still contained a number of flaws, and like every other Goatmoon release, I thought it was lacking something. 

So, I wasn’t originally too excited about ‘Voitto Tai Valhalla’ and it was only after I realized that they had shifted the band’s sound from pretty standard black metal to folk BM when it caught my eyes.

Now that I have listened to the album a couple of times I have to say up front that in my opinion Goatmoon has never sounded better than on ‘Voitto Tai Valhalla’. At some points during the album the folk elements might be a bit overwhelming for my taste, but generally the folkish style fits really well into the mix. 

As far as I can tell, the songwriting has also taken a huge leap forward and there was not a single song that wouldn’t have entertained me at least on some level. Unfortunately the lyrics have not improved, but on the other hand I knew to expect as much. Vocals themselves are great. BlackGoat has stuck to his personal way of doing the BM vocals and the occasional clean vocals fit the style of the album.

I also have to give credit for the album being so versatile. All the songs are rather distinguishable; for example ‘Way of the Holocaust Winds’ is clearly more of an atmospheric track, where as ‘Voitto tai Valhalla Part I’ plays the role of a cheesy opening track to get the listener’s blood running.

All in all, like I said, I have been having way more fun with this album than I expected. 

Favourite tracks: ‘Way of the Holocaust Winds’ and ‘Voitto Tai Valhalla Part II: Valkoinen Maa’

Orostider: The synth intro reminds me of Beherit's electronic era and won't give away that I'm spinning a Goatmoon album. Goatmoon is both loved and hated quite widely. The lover group consists of both the people who agree with their political views and the people who don't. The haters on the other hand usually do so due to the political disagreement. In my opinion, a band shouldn't be bashed solely due to their lyrical content, but people are free to have different opinions.

Musically the album struck me as a surprise. The album mainly consists of folk black metal, rather jolly sounding if I may, but leaves room for other elements too. The usage of folk instruments, like Jew's harp, fits the album's overall mood and the sound sometimes reminds me of Korpiklaani gone black metal or Moonsorrow, in a way. The variation is mainly between folky and cheery black metal and more atmospheric black metal. 'Way of the Holocaust Winds' is a good example of a more atmospheric song and musically it reminds me of Dråpsnatt.

People are free to think what they think of Blackgoat, but his vocals shouldn't be ignored purely based on disliking the character behind them. The vocals are wicked and harsh, representing the top partition of black metal vocals.

Lyrical content is what is expected from Goatmoon. It's a good thing that the lyrics aren't audible, as they are edgy as hell and aren't even well written. Being critical is always allowed, but the ideology shouldn't be used as an excuse to write low quality lyrics. But bashing the whole album just because of political correctness is wrong. Black metal has never been about asking forgiveness or being appropriate. You are allowed to dislike the band due to the lyrical content of course, but judging the listeners is just plain stupidity. This doesn't only apply to black metal, but to other genres too and also applies to both left and right wing ideologists. 

Aside from the lyrics, the album is a really solid one. The sound is occasionally too cheery and folky for me, but the album is well constructed and everything sounds intact.

btcarey: “Voitto Tai Valhalla” is a folk infused black metal album that solidifies Goatmoon’s role as a leader in Finland’s underground black metal scene. The band’s impressive career is built off consistent releases from the past 15 years, with several albums widely considered black metal classics. Their previous full-length album, “Varjot”, is one of my personal favorites, and stands as one of my top folk/black metal releases today.

“Voitto Tai Valhalla” is a much more folk oriented black metal album than Goatmoon’s other previous releases. The utilization of folk instruments like flute, jaw harp, and keyboards play a major role in the song writing, contrary to the past, where folk instruments were purely for support purposes. The new focus on the folk aspects really revitalizes Goatmoon’s sound, providing a depth to the music that was nonexistent in previous releases. This can best be heard on my favorite folk-driven track “Voitto Tai Valhalla Part II: Valkoinen Maa”.

Even though the album is “good” it’s not perfect. I usually don’t care about production quality but in this case, I really feel like Goatmoon should have mixed the record differently. Don’t get me wrong; the production is good… it’s just a bit too good. The album is so clean and crisp it takes away from Goatmoon’s rawness and aggression, which is a very important aspect for me. This being said, I recently heard Goatmoon’s latest song “Kansojen hävittäjä”, from their split “Kansojen hävittäjä / Crushing the Maccabees”, and it was perfect. Not only did it have the folk focus of “Voitto Tai Valhalla”, but it had the raw, dirty mix of their classics.

While “Voitto Tai Valhalla” isn’t a perfect album, and not Goatmoon’s greatest, it sets the stage for their future and has me yearning for their next releases.

Favorite Songs: “Voitto Tai Valhalla Part II: Valkoinen Maa”, “Way of the Holocaust Winds”

Weekly album: Volahn / Arizmenda / Kallathon / Shataan - Desert Dances and Serpent Sermons

Volahn / Arizmenda / Kallathon / Shataan - Desert Dances and Serpent Sermons

2015 / Black metal

1. Volahn - Chamalcan

2.Shataan - Caminando del Destino / Desert Smoke / Wells Run Dry

3. Arizmenda - Ropeburn Mutilation on the Outskirts of Life

4. Kallathon - Falling into the Horizon, Burning into the Black Twilight

btcarey: “Desert Dances and Serpent Sermons” is a split album comprised of four artists, each featuring their own song and perspective of the up-and-coming subgenre “western black metal”. The genre may not be entirely “new”, since some of the founding bands are several years old. “Desert Dances and Serpent Sermons” is truly the redefined and perfected version of what nuances of western black metal there were prior, making it the benchmark for future bands to come.

A lot of you are probably thinking, “What the hell is ‘Western Black Metal’?” Since the genre and this album are definitive of each other I can discuss both simultaneously. Western black metal is somewhat similar to how it sounds, yet encompasses much more than just black metal and old American Western’s soundtracks. The genre takes influence from black metal, Native American folk, country, and rock, creating an immense stylistic range that many bands could only hope to accomplish.

 All the bands offer their own distinct style to the album, with each song sounding different yet fit into the overall flow seamlessly. The first track “Chamalcan”, by Volahn has the most obvious western influence; almost feeling like the intro was sampled straight out of a movie. It seems a bit corny but not enough to keep “Chamalcan” from being a great song.

The second track “Caminando del Destino / Desert Smoke / Wells Run Dry” by Shataan, is much more progressively oriented. The use of flute and the organic clean vocals gives the song a raw and atmospheric tone, which is perfectly paired with rock-and-roll guitar riffs.

Arizmenda’s “Ropeburn Mutilation on the Outskirts of Life” is a much more traditional black metal song with even some death metal influenced riffs. It really picks up the pace from the previous song but doesn’t feel out of place in comparison to the rest of the album.

The fourth and final track, “Falling into the Horizon, Burning into the Black Twilight” by Kallathon, seems inspired by Native American folk but has a strong pagan black metal influence as well.

This is a well-crafted and beautifully executed album that offers an innovative perspective of modern black metal.

Favorite Songs: “Falling into the Horizon, Burning into the Black Twilight” and “Caminando del Destino / Desert Smoke / Wells Run Dry”

Orostider: Four bands, four songs. Btcarey told me about this album by describing the album to be

native american cowboy black metal. Intriguing as hell on its own and the wonderful artwork only increased the 'hype.'

The first track belongs to Volahn and it actually fits the genre description given by btcarey quite well. The track occasionally sounds like Muse's Knights of Cydonia with tons of black metal. The black metal elements are mainly from atmospheric black metal, but traditional elements are also present. All in all, 'Chamalcan' is a solid ten minute slab of pretty unique black metal.

Shataan's track 'Caminando Del Destino - Desert Smoke - Wells Run Dry' begins with a pipe utilizing intro which leads to a mid-tempo blast beat part with echoing clean vocals. The clean vocals aren't really done as well as they could have been, but the track compensates the somewhat even awful clean vocals with interesting instrumentation. The flute especially hits the spot for me, but after 'Chamalcan', the track sounds weak and unfortunately, the clean vocals start to sound even more awful due to the frequency of them. Easily the worst track of the split. 

After the first half of the album, it's Arizmenda's turn. The third track of the split is a lot more straightforward black metal than the two tracks before it. After Shataan's clean vocals, the harsh shrieks of Arizmenda actually bring some comfort. The track itself doesn't really differ from averagely good atmospheric-ish black metal songs, but it fits the split pretty well. 

Kallathon finishes the set of four with another song with a calm intro. After almost five minutes, the track launches a pagan black metal influenced song with a groove. The track is absolutely the most fitting one to be the closing song, but it still lacks something. Like Arizmenda's song, Kallathon's song doesn't really manage to separate itself from the vast cluster of black metal bands. The song is a good one, that's not the case, but it would've been a lot better with more uniqueness. 

Favourite song: Volahn - 'Chamalcan'

tp5170: I have to say that this black metal influenced by Native American and cowboy music was a completely new thing for me, but I kind of liked the idea of it. 

The first track ‘Chamalcan’ is maybe the one pressing hardest with the western influences. It’s a complicated track and it has many phases to it, some of which are really good and some of which aren’t. Altogether, it’s an interesting track, but neither the best nor the worst one on this four way split.

The second track ‘Caminando del Destino / Desert Smoke / Wells Run Dry’ is a bit lighter on the black metal influences and focuses on the western influences among other things. Even after a couple of spins, this one didn’t really open up for me and it’s probably the weakest track on the split in my opinion. There are surely some cool elements to be found here, but the overall quality could have simply been better and unfortunately the clean vocals didn’t sound all that great.

‘Ropeburn Mutilation on the Outskirts of Life’ is the name of the third track which offers a more traditional black metal experience. The style of it is slower and at least slightly leaning towards the atmospheric black metal. I enjoyed this track a great deal, because it’s simply well composed and it doesn’t lose its way at any point.

The fourth and last track, ‘Falling into the Horizon, Burning into the Black Twilight’, is also a slightly more traditional black metal track with a great, slower progression curve. It’s a fitting track to end the split with and it managed to keep me on my toes the entire time. 

Favorite songs: ’ Ropeburn Mutilation on the Outskirts of Life’ and ‘Falling into the Horizon, Burning into the Black Twilight’