Heidens Hart Records – 2010 – Germany
This album from this German band is a re-release. Originally, it was released by Det Germanske Folket and now Haidens Hard Records. I don’t know why it is re-released and I guess that this is not important for this review here. Important is the release and so I will speak only about it. This album is a concept album about the spiritual traveling of the shamans in the old Germanic faith. But, don’t expect now some kind of Pagan Metal album here. The only “Pagan Metal” thing here on this album is the lyrics and also from time to time some clean vocals. The music here is on this record is Black Metal without any keyboards and their Black Metal is fast without any mercy for the listener. They are not as fast as Dark Funeral or Marduk are, but still much faster than other bands from this Paga/Black Metal genre into which everyone seems to put them. On this record are 7 songs and some of them are very well done. Since they don’t try to make some kind of “Pagan” atmosphere here, this band tries to put something different in their music. The clean back vocals are in the slower moments of the songs to hear and they really put something different in it. If I need to name a band to compare them too, I would say that Bergthron are is the best example. This record could be compared to the “Lebens und Lebenswille” record fro Bergthron. If you listen very closely to this record you can some interesting details in the songs which show that this record is not a record composed the quick way. Also, it is not an easy record. Don’t get me wrong with this, I am not saying that this is a too hard or too progressive record, but the listener has to hear closely to it and not while doing something else. Off course, there are also some minor flaws here. The sound could be better from time to time and also I don’t like the scream vocals here. I would recommend some other kind of vocals. if they are trying to use Black Metal vocals for their music, than maybe they should try other kind of Black Metal vocals next time.
7/10
