(I don't usually do Black Metal reviews, but I've been listening to this for a few weeks now and felt I would be doing the concept of sound itself a disservice if I didn't tell others how awesome it could be. As such, this entry is written in a more tongue-in-cheek style. Don't rage.)
This is the best Black Metal album I have heard since Emperor broke up. At times it even goes into acoustic metal/Pink Floyd meets Varg Vikernes/Mercyful Fate. By the way, the lyrics are in Ukrainian. No, this does not make it any less epic when you find out it's all about Norse Gods, Valhalla, and how badass Ukraine is.
Nokturnal Mortum - The Voice of Steel
[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcsVp0A4Vik[/VIDEO]
1. Intro - The intro starts us off with something you never really hear in BM: trumpets. The ambient and harsh brass mixture creates an interesting morph into the more ethnic "norse vibe" sound that comes up. The sound continues to change though, and as more and more instrumentation and blacksmithy effects come on, we segway into...
2. Голос Сталі - THE VOICE OF STEEL
The eponymous song of the album is typical of black metal, and shamelessly typifies the genre well. This is not to say it's not an excellent track, but it's the usual fare. It's funny, the track that the album is named after is one of the weaker ones on here- though it does show something that happens frequently later on. Around 1/3 of the way through the sound changes quite suddenly. Progressive Black Metal that isn't awful? Can it be true!?
3. Валькирия - VALKYRIE
Much of the same as on 2, but better. We get more of the "epic" sounds that you would expect to hear in a 2013 remake of "Caligula" acted by Ukrainians with throat cancer and guitars. Again, more sudden changes! This track can be seen like a sequel to 2, and as far as sequels go, this one delivers: about midway through the song, when an introspectively progressive guitar comes up- no gutteral singing, no lightning fast drums. If I was alive and listening to this on a radio in 1978, I'd honestly think Led Zeppelin. It goes on for quite a while, and when it finishes I'm left wanting more- more peace and love, and more of that few minutes of amazingly progressive metal. Oh, and the finish is orgasmic. Yes, that is a pun.
4. Україна - UKRAINE
Time to channel me some Finntroll. This is what I've been waiting for. The chorus by itself is worth an EP and 3 music videos. If I could remix for my life I'd put it in a dubstep remix, then declare dubstep dead because it wouldn't do it justice. Yes, that's how good this is- it's better than dubstep. Half the time I hear this song I think I'm listening to a Kolovrat album (which brings back too many uncomfortable memories of listening to Dolche An Der Kehle at 3am in the morning while camping a stargate in EVE with 20 smelly goons). But Kolovrat, unlike Goons, is good, and this is better. I mean, you can't discount this! Go to 29 minutes in (on the video you blockhead) and listen to pure epic. And yes, I know Kolovrat didn't do Dolche an der Kehle, but I cba to remember the German HR "gruppe" that did.
5. Моєї Мрії Острови - MY DREAM ISLANDS
Ignore the weird name, because this is the best track on the album. "But how can that be, after the epic helping of epic stew on 4?" you may ask. Well I will show you: listen to the opening. Hear that? That's the sound of your rectal cavity slowly receding into your pleural sector. Sure, it starts off slow (but so did Stairway to Heaven, and Robert Plant was high on god-weed when he wrote that!), but then remembers that this album is marketed as Black Metal. It also sounds like they hired Ulver to do keyboards on this track- and in true Ulver form, it sounds amazing. Now, I'm not saying it is Ulver, but it's like how you THINK you can hear the voice of Graham Nelson saying "WE WILL DO AWAY WITH YOUR KING" on Dimmu Borgir's "Puritania". It's the only thing I can compare epic to without sounding like I don't know what I'm talking about. Smooth, awesome, and just light enough to not be "true" black metal like Shai-Hulud isn't "true" death metal. But seriously though, this track. THIS TRACK.
6. Шляхом Сонця - FOLLOWING THE SUN
If a band can have a heart attack and create terrible material after reaching their climax on an album, this song epitomizes that situation more than anything else. Skip it.
7. Небо Сумних Ночей - SKY OF SAD NIGHTS
Thankfully, like Gore Phantom, this band rises from the ashes. Sky of Sad Nights stands on its own rather well, and the flute sections later on paint its progression as more semitic-ly ethnic than Knjaz Varggoth, the national socialist vocalist / guitarist might prefer. Suck it Knjaz. Or, don't suck it because you're amazing. Anyway, the chorus is like the one on UKRAINE, only screamed and not hummed and spoken in a clear voice. It also sounds like Knjaz is saying "flex your body" at some points, which though hilarious, kind of trivializes this track. The flutes and sounds from the Realm of Epic later on clean it up some, but the album does pretty much climax at 5. This is just the falling action.
8. Біла Вежа - WHITE TOWER
Time to go off the deep end. The band basically becomes a weird and queer cross-breed of Starwind and Deathspell Omega here, with some Pink Floyd thrown in for good measure. The entire track is cleaner than most amps at a Cradle of Filth concert. This isn't even Black Metal. We've gone off the deepest end of the pool, over the top, and into aunt Henrietta's rhododendrons. WAIT. STOP EVERYTHING. TIME TO SCREAM. But those non-BM sounds are still there, and they're not going away. Just like Henrietta's rhododenrons. And your dignity.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go listen to this again for the 39th time, then reaffirm to my friends that I am in fact not a Neo-Nazi even though the "most socialist band in Ukraine and Russia" is in my top 5, along with Triarii (who actually aren't socialist!). Go Rome or go home!
