Grond

Grond - Winterkrieger
Folter Records, 2000
Genre: Black Metal

1. Carried by Deathwinds
2. Ewigkeiten
3. Battlemagic
4. Through the Mist of Fire
5. Winterkrieger
6. On the Path of the Ancient
7. Burning Souls at the Place of Eternal Victory
8. A Serenade in Black (Part II)






Grond is a band that may have passed into the shadows by this point in time, but I'm going to try and remind everyone about one of the finest albums Folter has ever had the priviledge of releasing.  Luckily I was finally able to hunt down a copy of this long out of print album, where I had only heard a friends copy before.  The relative unavailability of this album today says something about it's timeless nature to listeners of Black Metal.  If people were willing to sell it more often then maybe the music wasn't as well done, but I'm standing by the fact that no one is selling their copy means a lot!

I've given up all hope of finding the original demo from Grond, plus all the songs from the demo are featured here, so we'll just stick with the full length.  "Winterkrieger" is an incredible listen from start to finish.  Every riff is carefully crafted and well arranged to be memorable for the listener.  The interplay between the two guitars is absolutely perfect making every moment very satisfying to listen to.  "Winterkrieger" manages to expertly blend very majestic and epic Black Metal riffing with equal parts of viciousness and brutality.  Very few bands at this time were pulling this off perfectly, but Infinitus shows us that he is clearly a master craftsman of this music.  There are times on this album that I get a reminiscent feeling of early Satyricon.  Naturally the one thing I would change is the fact that he used programmed drums on this recording, but he was at least conscious to write decent arrangements for the drums.  The ride cymbal sample is still terrible though as were just about all drum samples at this time.  I guess it ultimately doesn't matter, because the real thing that shines is the music.

I hope I have done my part to help people remember this great band.  After this full length Infinitus put the project to rest and part of me is saddened that they will never release another album, but another part of me is thankful they could never screw up such a perfect short legacy.  In the end I hope this band never gets forgotten, because they have put out such a spectacular masterpiece in my opinion.