Stworz

Stworz - Wołosożary
Werewolf Promotion, 2017
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

1. Białe stanice, czerwone niebiosa
2. Rozpłomień
3. Wołosożary
4. Księżyc-Czarodziej
5. Znów zakwitną sady
6. Niech żyje śmierc
7. Przez żmijową niwę
8. Jesteśmy Słońcem
9. Moja Swarzyca
10. Będę tęsknotą w Twych samotnych oczach
11. Na szarych łodziach Grudnia
12. Jest bez pole stecka



After "Zagony bogów", I was certainly looking forward to its follow up. For this, Stworz ended up taking a few years from working on metal related music and put out acoustic and folk styled releases, which I'm not very interested in, so they're not going to appear in the review set. If you like that stuff, I'm sure they did an excellent job, but I doubt I would give the material a very fair review, because I often find it boring after a while. Luckily after a couple years Stworz was back to release another excellent Pagan Black Metal album.

"Wołosożary" is a little different from "Zagony bogów", because it's not nearly as vicious or powerful. I think "Wołosożary" is a lot more melancholic than their prior material. It's kind of strange, to me, since they seem to be following a very similar path to Nokturnal Mortum, because "Verity" is a lot more mellowed out compared to "Voice of Steel". However, these projects are certainly operating independently and Stworz has quite a different overall sound despite the influence of the bigger named project. Stworz did a better job on this album blending the folk instruments more seamlessly in the production. In some prior albums instruments like the flute would just dominate the mix, but here it sits a lot better. The blend of distorted guitars and acoustic guitars works very well and only serves to emphasize that more melancholic atmosphere this time. They adjusted the drum production a little as well, it's only okay as far as I'm concerned. The kick drums lost some of their punch, so it doesn't have that kick feel like I'm listening to Doc from Vader, which I kind of liked for some reason, but I can see why Stworz would want to back off on that.

In the end this doesn't hit as hard as "Zagony bogów", but it definitely has some great music on it. It took me a couple listens to really get interested in the album. It was the closer, second listen, where I got to experience the full breadth of this album. It's a really beautiful piece of music, but for me, I think "Zagony bogów" is a little better. Either way, if you've already been following Stworz then the new album doesn't disappoint, it just takes our journey in a slightly different direction.

Stworz - Zagony bogów
Werewolf Promotion, 2015
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

1. Zagony bogów
2. Pług czasu
3. Maro, Maro
4. Przędza losu
5. Perun jest mnogi
6. Droga mleczna
7. Jaskółki
8. Czerwone jajeczko
9. Nic ponad bogów myśl i czyn
10. Pieśń żerców
11. Pożegnanie słońca
12. Szerokie pole




We didn't have long to wait from the follow-up to "Cóż po żyznych ziemiach​.​.​." and I won't complain about that at all. "Zagony bogów" continues Stworz' interesting blend of Pagan/Folk elements into their unique style of Black Metal. As usual they bring us a booklet filled with art that inspires the imagery of the music.

I actually enjoyed "Zagony bogów" more than the previous album. I feel like this is where Stworz really managed to blend everything that influences them into a single cohesive album. I think on the prior album they were still a bit more explorative with everything, but on this release they've really harnessed what they were trying to do and blended all the pieces together. One of the problems I find when blending things like traditional pieces and Black Metal together, is that sometimes things can wind up feeling overly upbeat. However, the prior album wound up falling into that trap a little bit, however "Zagony bogów" manages to blend the styles together very well. It manages to keep an overarching intensity and darkness, while at the same time blending in the epic feel of the traditional elements. When they switch over to the folk parts that are calming and the traditional female vocals, they feel far more well thought out than before. Sometimes on "Cóż po żyznych ziemiach​.​.​." the elements felt sort of forced together, but now they've sorted out those issues.

If you're a fan of things like modern Nokturnal Mortum, then I would imagine that "Zagony bogów" will be an enjoyable listen. Definitely one of the best albums released for the year in my book. Absolutely a must buy if your into this style of music.

Stworz - Cóż po żyznych ziemiach​.​.​.
Werewolf Promotion, 2014
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

1. Wyraj
2. Nim wróci Wiosna...
3. Matka Ziemia, Ojciec Słońce
4. Tęsknota
5. Mój kraj
6. Koło życia
7. Zażynki
8. By dla Słońca pieśni śpiewać...
9. Gdy Słońce przemierza bezkresne niebiosa...
10. Wieczne Słońce
11. Cóż po żyznych ziemiach...
12. Z tamtej strony jeziora



Stworz has actually been pretty quiet for a couple years, but this album is where they caught my attention. Because I heard "Cóż po żyznych ziemiach..." it made me want to back into their discography and find out what the early material sounded like, while it's not as good as this, it was still pretty good. However, I feel like the whole approach to writing and record changed dramatically on this album and Stworz took a very mature step with this release.

Even though Stworz stands on the shoulders of other artists like Nokturnal Mortum, Falkenbach and later Honor (probably because they're Polish and use similar progressions) I feel like Stworz has carved out a unique enough sound to set them apart from other bands. When we hit this album I feel like Stworz is striking out on their own to combine the sounds of their native land with Black Metal in a far more cohesive way than ever before. The end results is a composition that has those epic and triumphant qualities, but still has a bit of a darker undercurrent to their music. Even though they'll include native folk elements in their music, it never really strikes a level of silliness that you'd hear with something like Finntroll... except one song... the end of "Mój kraj". It's the one and only time they deviate from their approach and it really kills the feel of the album in this one section. It's a real shame, because it's one of my favorite songs on the album, until they start with the up beat stuff. Either way, I prefer Stworz' overall approach to the Pagan Black Metal genre more. Hopefully future releases will be a more cohesive listening experience though.

On this release they also feature a female singer that adds a lot more to that ancient folk feel. Singing in a more traditional voice of the region it adds an interesting feel to the music. Vocally W. doesn't try to achieve the more traditional Black Metal vocals as we heard in prior releases, but something in between that and more of a shout. The end results is a vocal performance that melds far better in his music than his previous vocal attempts. This approach is one of the things that was sorely missing from the Stworz arrangements and I'm really glad he switched to this style of vocal. It's not clean, it's not entirely harsh, but sits somewhere in between, since if this was dominated by clean vocals, I probably wouldn't like it.

The production quality of their recordings has been improved quite a bit. I still think the band is using either an e-kit or programming the drums. I think it's more likely an e-kit though, because of the way the performance sounds. It sounds more human than outright machine. The kick drum samples kind of have that Vader kick drum sound and for whatever reason it seems to work here. They have this powerful presence in the mix, which  really helps drive the music. The guitar feel far more organic before and even if they're DI'ing everything instead of mic'ing up amps they did a pretty good job with making everything sound as real as they could. Yet amidst all of this there still feels like an underlying quality of rawness that I personally believe should be pervasive in all Black Metal production, because otherwise its too polished and doesn't fit the genre.

If you're really going to spend some time getting into this album, make sure you set aside a good amount of time, because it's over an hour long. So, it's quite the journey, but Stworz' songs are so enjoyable that I find it easy to stay entertained throughout the recording. I really look forward to Stworz exploring this approach in future releases. Definitely a must hear album!

Stworz - Blask wiecznego ognia
Werewolf Promotion, 2012
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

1. Zmierzch nad Sławią
2. Słońce niezwyciężone
3. Blask nad wiecznymi lasami
4. Celebracja cykli słońca
5. Tragedie krwią w śniegu pisane
6. Jesienne liście spadają w deszczu
7. Oblicze Chorsowe
8. Wiatr, co słowiańską pieśń niesie
9. Duma Lechitów
10. 1034
11. Rodzima wiara




If you missed out on the first two tape releases by Stworz like I did, this is your chance to listen to that old material. On the way to this compilation, I also missed out on some more splits and EP's... ah well, I've just resigned myself to reviewing what I have available from this project. Stworz also delves into releasing acoustic/folk styled releases amidst their metal albums and I'm not as interested in those.

Since this material pre-dates "Po czasu kres" this music is along similar lines, but almost more primitive in some ways. With "Blask nad wiecznymi lasami" first being released in 2008, you can still get an idea of the basic foundation Stworz was going for. That epic flavor put into the Pagan Black Metal style is ever present in Stworz's riffing style. However, I found the overall music to plod along a little more slowly compared to later releases. Some moments are great, but you can still tell that this is a pretty early effort for the project. As this project grows things get a little more elaborate and more well formed. The material featured from the split with Wolforder is little different. The production quality is a little better, the drums sound a bit more real. But writing wise it's not too different.

I've always enjoyed delving into a bands history and early years. While some projects may find some of their early material pretty cringe-worthy, Stworz, luckily, doesn't have that problem. However, it's certainly not great or a legend in the making. It's just not bad. It's a good start, that built into something really spectacular in my opinion. In the end, this isn't music to listen frequently, but it's fun to delve into a bands history and if you liked the more Black Metal days of Stworz's history this will be a must have in that case.

Stworz - Synowie słońca
Frenteuropa Records, 2010
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

1. Przekuwając myśl w czyn
2. Do młodzi sławiańskiej!
3. Synowie słońca
4. Nektar inspiracji
5. Jaryło
6. Łzy Europy
7. Kołowrót
8. My, Lechici
9. Ku horyzontów krańcom







In just the short span of a year the Stworz sound has developed rather dramatically. The songwriting alone just feels so much more mature for some reason. It's as if they struck upon an idea and approach to how their music should sound and it really just melded together very well.

On this album we'll still get a backdrop of Black Metal into their overall sound, with blast beats and harsh vocals. Coupled with the fact that it feels like there's a lot more influence from Nokturnal Mortum's folkier side being thrown into the mix. The overall feel and tone of the guitars actually reminds me of Honor's "W płomieniach wschodzącej siły", which was an album that focused on more pagan themes than anything else. There is a lot more folk instrumentation throughout this album, amidst its epic and passionate metal performance. I think "Мировоззрение" from Nokturnal Mortum bears the strongest resemblence in terms of song writing structure. However, Stworz puts their own twist on the themes and structure, not to mention folk elements unique to their region. So, Stworz is hardly a clone of the projects that started the whole Pagan Black Metal approach, but I feel that Stworz is striking out on a path all their own and will have a more unique voice in the genre with the way this album turned out to be.

While the first Stworz full-length was only okay, this is a major step in the right direction and they have definitely got my attention with this release. I really had no complaints about the album and I found it a very enjoyable album. It may not be one of the most compelling ever released, but it was still very good and definitely moving their songwriting in an excellent direction. I'm interested in what they'll come up with next, that's for sure.

Stworz - Po czasu kres
Frenteuropa Records, 2009
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

1. W ciszy jesiennych dni
2. Po czasu kres
3. Dzieje snem okryte
4. Porannych mrozów pieśń
5. Kosovo je Srbija
6. Tragedie pisane krwią w śniegu
7. Duma Sławii
8. Równonoc








If you're more familiar with the Stworz of 2014 or after, then delving into their back catalog may hold some fairly different things for you. I didn't really run into this band until they were fairly well established and I found their approach very captivating and I was hoping for more of that, so I delved deeper into their music catalog.

People that came to Stworz a little later will be surprised to hear the opening title track being a massive and fast blast fest. However, delving into the second track "Dzieje snem okryte" we begin to hear quite a bit of the sound Stworz would focus on more. One of the bigger differences is the use of a sort of distorted Black Metal voice for a lot of this album, as opposed to that sort of strong shout W. uses in later releases. He's not nearly as good with the Black Metal vocally speaking. He's not bad, but only okay. The guitar tone is also way too fuzzy, but in later releases this gets cleaned up quite a lot, so it's far more desirable to listen to. Still we get those wonderful epic passages that I wanted more of from Stworz and those are rife throughout the album. So, in terms of composition, this is actually a very well done album, and it's merely limited by its production quality, because a cleaner production would favor this style a lot more. The music isn't raw or unbridled enough. The other major issues is the very obvious electronic drum kit. I don't know if he majorly upgraded this kit later or just got an acoustic drum set, but the drum production improves dramatically at some point. For some reason I always think an electronic drum kit on a Pagan Black Metal album is a bit of an oxymoron... ah well, I do realize not everyone has the means or space for acoustic drums. Still, I would hire someone before delving into the e-kit for this.

Delving into Stworz's past I was expecting to hear far worse, but I think they've crafted a very good album here and it is merely marred by a sub-par production value. Overall the album has great songwriting and a compelling triumphant atmosphere, but it doesn't shine through nearly as much as future releases. So, Stworz is off to a strong start, but has some areas to seriously improve upon in the future.

Throne of Splendour

Throne of Splendour - Facing the New Dawn
Garazel Productions, 1999
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

1. Intro
2. Winds of Pride
3. Following the Eternal Voices
4. Facing the New Dawn












Throne of Splendour is a little known project out of Greece. The release of this tape on Garazel Productions is really what brought me to purchasing the tape, which is really just on the demo material level. This is also their second tape, I have missed out on the first and have, truly, no idea where I would even track it down. I will simply wait for someone to come along that wants to part with it. This tape, however, comes as a pro-printed double sided booklet with a dubbed tape.

Throne of Splendour is not your typical Black Metal project. It feels like they are sort of a slightly new take on the Graveland sound, to be honest. One of the major reasons this gets a Pagan Black Metal feel is because of its less conventional drumming approach. Rather than use a drum kit, they stick with traditional old world hand drums and a tambourine to keep the pace of the songs. The intro song and closing song "Facing the New Dawn" are simply clean guitar songs. They certainly create that cold and old atmosphere you would expect. "Winds of Pride" and "Following the "Eternal Voices" have distorted guitar lines that resemble the work of Rob Darken in many ways. They also feature the traditional harsh vocals of Black Metal. The music definitely has that epic and ancient feel to it, so in that regard they have certainly succeeded. One of the strange things related to this music is that it is very anti-Muslim or "Moslem" as they've written it in the booklet. I find this interesting, because this is a very early occurrence for that stand-point in Black Metal. It is only later that this stance becomes far more prominent in the genre, going beyond the more usual anti-Christian standpoints.

Overall this is pretty good and quite interesting material. So, if you've ever wanted a slightly different approach to the Graveland style this might be of interest to you. I think in later Graveland albums you would even see Darken including a lot of these elements in his music, so its tough to say who influenced who in some respects. Graveland is certainly the far more well known band in this case, hence the references. The musicians involved with Throne of Splendour seem to have stopped being involved in the music scene altogether though...

Hellveto

Hergorn & Hellveto Split
Nimthoron Promotion, 2001
Genre: Black Metal

Hergorn - Under the Sign of Ancient Gods:
1. Modlitwa Do...
2. Mistyczny Czas Umierania Dusz
3. Krzyk Rozpaczy
4. Taniec Kruka
5. Outro
Hellveto - Burning Kingdoms:
6. Intro
7. Screams of Victory
8. Potęga...
9. Windwinter
10. Czas Płonących Pochodni
11. Outro
12. Stony Pride


Side Hergorn: here

Side Hellveto:

After an excellent performance from Hergorn I was eager to hear what Hellveto had in store for us. The first thing I noticed was that the production quality wasn't up to the more recent higher standards and sounded a lot older. Well this material was apparently recorded back in 1999 according to the booklet, so the sound quality is much closer to the "Horned Sky" style.

So, keeping the fact that this is not new material in mind "Burning Kingdoms" is much darker than the prior releases. The prior material usually has an abundance of majesty amidst the dark atmosphere, but here the atmosphere is much more dense than the other recordings. Strangely, I think this is because the keyboard sections are much heavier this time around. The Black Metal guitar sections really take a back seat in the mix for this album and we are just doused in this level of dense fog from the keyboard section. Even the drums become over-powered at times, but that is actually okay because it gives this material a really different take on the Hellveto sound. This is much more of an Ambient/Black Metal style in my opinion. Given how good L.O.N. is  with arranging keyboard pieces, it actually works quite well and it's interesting to hear this old music resurrected from his vaults. "Stony Pride" is also re-released here from the "Winterforest" demo. It doesn't say anything about it being re-recorded, but it does sound a little stronger than the original release.

If you're a Hellveto fan this is definitely worth checking out because of how interesting the music is. The production could be a little better given the way the songs are structured, but it's just good enough for us to follow what L.O.N. had for ideas and the atmosphere he was creating and that's the most important part.

Hellveto - Hellveto
Nawia Productions, 2001
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

1. Intro
2. ...In a Dream
3. Black Oak
4. Under the Sign of Thunderbolt
5. Zapomniane Zło
6. Night of Gods
7. Lord of Darkness
8. Outro








After the leap in quality improvement from "Medieval Scream" it is no surprise that Hellveto swiftly returns with it's first official release. I realize this is classed as a demo, but I think of this more as their debut album. One of the things that makes this release so interesting is that most of this is material re-recorded from the first demo with some slight track changes. It omits the two songs "The End" and 'Forgotten Spirit" and instead gives us a new track "Under the Sign of Thunderbolt". Despite this it says in the booklet "All hymns taken from demo '96". So, I'm not sure if I should bother believing the web. I also assume a new "Intro" and "Outro" have been recorded for this release.

Delving this far back into Poland's early Black Metal history has resulted in some truly wonderful music. Recently I've been delving more deeply into the early Polish scene and I realize only a fraction of it made it to my door in the early-90's when I started listening to Black Metal. Things were certainly much harder to deal with globally, because there was no internet around, so hearing about bands was up to 'zines and word of mouth mostly. I think the material on "Hellveto" fits in quite nicely in this early scene. Perhaps the original demo was not as well recorded, but aesthetically this is simply beautiful and would have worked in very nicely alongs the likes of Behemoth, Sacrilegium, Veles, etc. Even back then L.O.N. was doing something quite different and added some good ideas to the genre. I think this is one of the major reasons I'm drawn to Hellveto, nothing else really sounds anything like this! Just listen to the majestic sound evoked during "Lord of Darkness"! It really does give off a truly epic atmosphere. Some of the guitar riffs are primitive by modern standards, but even "Black Oak" manages to set the stage for some wonderful imagery. One of the major stand out tracks on here is the new "Under the Sign of Thunderbolt" whose length and epic nature really stand out on this release.

In the end this is a wonderful debut and I'm really glad L.O.N. decided to revisit this material rather than leaving it lost to the annals of history. It really gives modern listeners some insight into what the emerging Polish scene was producing. A wonderful cassette release on the legendary Nawia Productions. I definitely highly recommend checking this album out and I can't wait to hear what's next.

Hellveto - Medieval Scream
Self-Released, 2000 (Cassette)
Ritual Execution Promotion, 2003 (CD)
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

1. Intro (Niemy Omen)
2. Słowiańska Wyrocznia
3. Knell Of Darkness
4. Jesienna Modlitwa
5. In Forgotten...
6. W Imię Czarnej Chwały
7. Greater Land
8. Strach Zbudzonych Przestworzy
9. Kurpian Phantom
10. Tears of War
11. Outro (Pogański Zmierzch)



Of all the demos recorded by Hellveto, this is the only one that has seen any kind of repress onto CD. I imagine this is L.O.N.'s favorite of his demo days and that's why we saw this pressed officially on CD. I, unfortunately, do not own the original tape edition of this. When I originally discovered Hellveto, I did not realize this had originally been released on tape, so I never really bothered to seek out the original version.

"Medieval Scream" is, at times, quite the upgrade from "Horned Sky", but I can really hear the difference now between his demo work and even material written three years later. With the re-recorded versions of two tracks from "Horned Sky", namely "In Forgotten..." and "Tears of War", you can really hear the progression in his newer music. The re-recordings are really spectacular and give the songs a much deeper dimension with the higher quality recordings. Songs like "Słowiańska Wyrocznia" stand out quite a bit as higher quality compositions and they really have a strong and evocative edge to them. The more recent compositions have a better blend between the guitar riffs and the atmospheric direction of the project.

The big draw for "Medieval Scream" is the general improvement in recording quality. It really let's the music shine through a lot more than his prior releases. The subtle changes of atmosphere between the guitars and keyboards are far easier to see now. Hopefully this is a good sign for future recordings, because this is a very difficult style to pull off seamlessly. L.O.N. seems to constantly be improving his sound, so I'll keep listening to see what comes next.

Hellveto - Horned Sky
Nawia Productions, 1999
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

1. Black Tear
2. Raventhrone
3. Time of the Ancient War
4. The Sword of Tryglaw
5. Łowy
6. Masacra in the Dream
7. Silence of the Forgotten Ages
8. Night of My Dying Soul
9. Winter
10. Dark Icetime






Another year brings us another Hellveto demo. This time it's finally getting published through Nawia Productions, who also produced Hate Forests demo "Scythia". So, some legendary bands have gone through this label. Hellveto demos probably qualify as outright albums and I would honestly treat "Horned Sky" as the debut album, since it's the first one professionally made.

Due to the professional printing of the booklet, I did expect the music to be done a little better. Compared to "Winterforest" this material is much better. I think L.O.N. has learned a lot about how to engineer his music, because the sound quality is much better. He's also getting a lot more elaborate with the keyboard work, but it's not as seamlessly blended with the guitar work as later Hellveto works will become. On this recording I feel like I can hear the Norwegian Viking Metal style far more prominently than before. There are some sections that distinctly remind me of early Enslaved, where some parts remind me of Einherjer. The Graveland influence is fairly apparent and I think Hellveto is more closely related to that project than any other. While L.O.N. continues to retain that very epic feel to his music, I thought this album turned out to be a lot more relaxing than some of the prior material. The album has a lot of beautiful and lite textures to it, giving it more of a sombre quality than you'd expect from a Black Metal. At least that's true for the first half of this album, because when we get into "Masacra in the Dream" we are immediately assaulted with blasting Black Metal. But this is only brief and the second half of this album settles in with the rest of the material.

Despite the "Black Tear," "Łowy" and "Dark Icetime", keyboards aren’t used on every song; they’re actually used with a fair amount of moderation.  They seem to be used at just the right moments, showing how adept of a songwriter L.O.N. actually is.  When it comes to the Black Metal aspect do not expect some insane blasting Black Metal from Hellveto, but you will get some majestic and very powerful sounding Pagan Black Metal.  Honestly, I’ve never heard a band represent Pagan Black Metal as well as Hellveto.  Many will probably say “but what about Nokturnal Mortum” at this point, but a lot of their “pagan” aspects merely come from the ethnic instruments they use.  Hellveto doesn’t really use that many ethnic instruments as far as I can tell, but somehow comes across with this supremely majestic sound, and one can’t help but think of ancient battles!  It’s sort of like Graveland in that respect.  There are some beautiful clean guitar passages throughout the album and they are, as usual, placed at just the right moments.  I really don’t hear much influence from other bands, except the first part of “The Sword of Tryglaw” sounds akin to Satyricon’s “Dark Medieval Times,” but then that quickly falls away after the first riff sequence is done.  It would seem Hellveto have managed to find a sound all their own amidst all the rip off bands and he did it with just the usual instruments, nothing fancy by any means.

In the end Hellveto treat us to another epic release with some very beautiful passages. I find that Hellveto doesn't really compose songs that are heavily distinguishable, but instead crafts albums with an entire aesthetic. I think this kind of composition works for the project, except that it is quite hard to discuss for me. I quite enjoyed this demo and I think Hellveto is heading in the right direction. I really look forward to see if more improvements are going to be made. I think aspects of the recording process are still a bit more on the raw side than makes sense for this style, but I know this gets fixed as time goes on.

Hellveto - Winterforest
Self-Released, 1998
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

1. First Battle
2. Night of God
3. Ancient Statue
4. I am the Last
5. The Way of My Ancestors
6. Tears of War
7. In Forgotten
8. Stony Pride
9. Second Battle
10. Glory

It's time to start working on one of the larger discographies in my collection.  I can't seem to find the first version of the self titled demo anywhere, so I'm giving up and starting of with "Winterforest".  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to own a copy of this either and I am stuck with downloaded mp3's in 128kbps.  It sounds okay in that format, but I would've preferred to do my own digital transfer like I usually do with my demo tapes... plus then my readers get a larger cover to look at.

"Winterforest" is the second effort in what would turn out to be a highly productive career.  Some say too productive, with multiple full lengths per year, but for me as long as LON keeps up the quality in writing, I don't mind being very productive.  Despite having a lacking in quality I can't help but think that this is a relatively fresh sound.  Sure all the elements have been used before, but Hellveto just has an extremely different feel and approach to writing music.  Due to the recording quality the music feels pretty raw and the guitars are very thin sounding, but the compositions are extremely epic in sound.  There is heavy use of keyboards and to a degree they do drive the music, but not in a typical Symphonic Black Metal way, it's very hard to explain why exactly this runs against the conventional wisdom about heavily keyboard laden bands.  LON has figured out how to blend keyboards and guitar together in a way where they enhance each other in such a way that you don't feel you've lost anything while listening to the music.  Another interesting thing LON does is he doesn't use any traditional folk instruments, but there is no illusion that this is Pagan Black Metal, the music is just that epic.  He doesn't even really use acoustic guitar, he just uses clean electric guitars.

The only way this music suffers is from the production.  Things aren't mixed as well as they could be and sometimes the vocals sound a little weird to me.  There isn't any effect on the vocals like reverb so it feels exceptionally raw.  As I mentioned above the guitars do sound a little thin for the recordings and if this was more of a real studio setting, I'm sure it would have come out differently.  The drums are actually fairly well recorded though and I was impressed by that.

LON is clearly an incredible musician.  Hellveto being a one man project and he's able to write with such clarity is impressive with all the instruments.  This is a band I definitely highly recommend checking out if you have the chance.  If you managed to get a copy of this original demo, consider yourself very lucky!

Helheim

Helheim - Niðr Ok Norðr Liggr Helvegr
Perverted Taste, 2005
Genre: Viking Metal

1. Muspilli Strid
2. Blandt Ulvenes Frender Og Kråkens Traer
3. Jotne Vandring
4. Under the Norse Sky
5. De Kalde Marker Av Slag Fortapt
6. Drømmedans
7. Gravlagt I Eljudne
8. Gjennom Mørke Og Tåke

Originally Released: 1994





Perverted Taste has certainly been on the ball releasing rare demo material. Along with this release such titles as Shining “The Darkroom Sessions” and the Taake demos have also been released by them. Anyway, this is a repress of Helheim's 1994 demo. I first experienced Helheim with “Jormundgand,” which I acquired around the time it was originally released. I really did not think very favorably of “Jormundgand”. In fact for a long time it kept me from getting another Helheim album until they released “Blog og Ild.” So, I’m sure all of you are wondering what in the world possessed me to get the album prior to “Jormundgand” if I hated “Jormundgand.” I prefer to have a full discography of a band I actually enjoy, and seeing as how all their other albums rule, one can suppose I enjoy Helheim.

Like “Jormundgand” this has some songs that are centered on folk oriented music. I initially got into Helheim because they looked like a Viking Metal band, and that’s really precisely what they are. However, in 1994 the Viking Black Metal bands were still trying to really develop their sound. We all heard how much Enslaved changed from their demo days into what they ultimately became on “Vikinglir Veldi.” With “Hordanes Land” being the closest culmination of the eventual Enslaved sound. While Helheim's “Jormundgand” musically is undeniably Viking Metal, “Nidr ok Nordr Liggr Helvegr” is a little strange. It somewhat reminds me of Enslaved’s demo “Yggdrasil,” in that it’s very untamed. One of the major points that this band eventually learned is that you don’t sing over those majestic acoustic and piano passages in Black Metal vocals. This demo opens with “Muspilli Strid,” which is a beautiful acoustic passage with those infuriatingly high pitched vocals in the background. Therefore, at first listen I was afraid the entire album would feature these wretched, out of place, vocals. Luckily for me, when the actual metal section kicks in they stopped using that incredibly annoying vocal approach. So this demo actually stands to be a right sight better than “Jormundgand,” if you can really believe that. However, musically “Jormundgand” is far superior to this. The music on here seems overly random and actually makes less sense, but there are some good riffing parts like in “Blandt Ulvenes Frender og Kråkenes Trær” and then songs like “Under the Norse Sky” have these really strange ominous sections, but have this really old school passionate guitar approach, so they sound pretty good in the great scheme of things. They also have a simply amazing piano instrumental on here; “Jotne Vandring,” I honestly didn't know that Hrymr was that good at piano. I actually wish he would make that more well known in the newer material we hear nowadays, though I’m not sure how it would work on an album like “Yrsenia Pestis.” Regardless, they screwed part of this song up too with this random vocal yell in the middle. Maybe if I thought the vocalist was supremely exceptional it wouldn't bother me that much, but it just sounds like an amateur Black/Death Metal approach to vocals, certainly not the next Hreidmarr or Arioch by any means. Luckily on the vocal passages for the real metal songs the person singing sounds more experienced. (Please note it lists both the bassist and guitarist as vocalist so I’m not sure who the main one is.)

Ultimately this is actually a good album. Surprisingly for a demo track from 1994 the production actually is pretty damn good. Most demo material from bands of this caliber is basically incomprehensible. Helheim magically defied all the odds and have pretty good production and it doesn't sound like one harsh wall of fuzz and white noise. A part I find rather humorous is that the riff around 0:42 on “De Kalde Marker av Slag Fortapt” is extremely dissonant and reminds me of Blut Aus Nord’s “Mystical Beast of Rebellion.” Maybe Helheim were really just working ahead of their time. This is the only section of the album where the high pitched wails actually sort of worked, but on the rest of this track they were just okay. This is, believe it or not, actually a pretty good Black Metal album. I think it’s before they really came into their own right as a Viking Metal project full force, but damn, I sure do love that dissonant riff! I would never say this is an essential musical piece to have, but it is enjoyable to listen to in order to see where Helheim started out as a band.