EP Review: Graveland - Cold Winter Blades

Artist: Graveland (Poland)
EP Title: Cold Winter Blades
Record Label: No Colours Records (Germany)
Released: 2010
Purchased From: Ebay

I'm a pretty big Graveland fan, a fact that I've made clear in the past. Although I was somewhat disappointed in the last full-length, Spears of Heaven, his 2010 EP Cold Winter Blades has given me renewed faith in Rob Darken.

The five-track EP starts off with the first of two brand-new songs, "In the Morning Mist." The choir sound is the same as what we heard on the last album, but then the (synthesized) voices are joined by a nice brass section, well-played (or perhaps programmed) drums, and a guitar that sounds a little meatier than what we heard on Spears of Heaven. Now more than ever, Graveland seems to draw inspiration from the soundtrack to the movie Conan the Barbarian. I don't know the last time I've heard something so warlike that didn't come from a movie soundtrack. Though, sound-wise, this is not really a departure from Spears of Heaven, the overall atmosphere is much more satisfying and powerful. And this is barely a minute into the first track.

The second track, "From the Beginning of Time," isn't quite as good as the first, but it's still pretty good. The most pleasant surprise on the album is the third track, "White Winged Hussary." The track starts off sounding a bit like "Return to the Northern Carpathian," the song that closed Spears of Heaven. It begins with a clean guitar, which changes to a distorted one as the synthesized female vocals join in. The melody that begins is pretty awesome, like nothing I've heard from Graveland before. Soon the song begins to sound like normal Graveland, but that melody continues to show its face in variations throughout the song. It's beautiful. "White Winged Hussary" is probably in my top 5 Graveland songs of all time. Even if I hadn't enjoyed the rest of the EP, I would have felt it to be worth it simply because of the inclusion of this track.

The next song, "Spear of Wotan," sounds a lot like something from Will Stronger Than Death, except with better recording quality. This song, like "White Winged Hussary," is a new version of a song that appeared on a previous compilation. I really like the way Darken uses brass instruments (even though they're synthesized/sampled) to create a majestic atmosphere. They're used to good effect on "Spear of Wotan," as are the synthesized female vocals. The final track on the EP, "Dance of Axes and Swords," is a remix of a song that appeared on my favorite Graveland album, Fire Chariot of Destruction. All that has really changed here is a better recording quality and better drum sound. Still, it's a good song, and I think he managed to improve on it.

Graveland is sort of a "love it or hate it" kind of artist, but if you're already a fan, Cold Winter Blades is a great EP and worth checking out. If, like me, you are a fan but were disappointed in Spears of Heaven, this EP may restore your faith in Graveland as it did for me. He's working on the next album at the time of this writing, and if it sounds anything like this, it will definitely be something special.