Album Review: Graveland - Spears of Heaven

Artist: Graveland (Poland)
Album Title: Spears of Heaven
Record Label: No Colours (Germany)
Released: 2009

I have grown to love the music of Rob Darken's epic pagan metal project Graveland over the past few years, but I hate reading most reviews of his albums. Occasionally more "mainstream" metal writers will review a Graveland album, I suppose to show how open-minded they are to listen to something they find so detestable to their political beliefs, but they can't resist hurling cheap insults at Darken or spending half the review distancing themselves from his politics so as not to leave any doubt that their own politics are much more left-wing. Well, I'm not left-wing, for the most part, so if you're waiting for me to call Darken an "utter fool" or "forest-dwelling heathen LARPmaster" like one reviewer for a major metal website called him in his listless review of Spears of Heaven, you'll be waiting for a long time.

However, as much as I am a fan of Graveland, I cannot give Spears of Heaven a ringing endorsement as I am prone to doing on this little blog. Many of the things I enjoy about Graveland --the war-like atmosphere and imagery of epic battles for the survival of our race, the fire and passion that bleeds from every riff, lyrics that stir the pride of blood even though Darken's English is less than perfect-- are absent from this recording. This is a bit baffling, as the last few albums have had these qualities and more. The previous two albums, Fire Chariot of Destruction and Will Stronger Than Death, showed what seemed to be a re-energized Darken. They are both excellent releases, among the best in Graveland's discography. I'm not sure what went wrong with Spears of Heaven.

It's not all bad, despite what I said in the last paragraph, but I expected much more. The opening, title track begins in promising fashion with a war-like atmosphere and synthesized/sampled female choir voices like Valkyries announcing the new album. But then the first riff starts, and it's uninspiring. At least the drums sound good, though they seem to lack the driving force of the drums on the last few recordings, if I'm not imagining things. Darken's voice sounds pretty standard, a sort of croaking voice that doesn't do much but deliver the lyrics. Most of the basic building blocks seem to be there, so what's missing? I think it's all about the riffs, and the drums. I'm not expecting great riffs here, but normally the music adds up to some sort of atmosphere, created by the grim riffs, the war drums, and the epic feeling delivered by the choirs and synths, and I can't help but feel that it doesn't add up on this album. Spears of Heaven doesn't really give my mind any imagery, nor does it stir anything in my mind or my blood. It lacks inspiration or fire. Darken sounds as if he, when recording this album, was momentarily lacking the passion and pride that normally drives him to create the great, epic pagan metal that Graveland normally delivers. I'm hoping that that's the case, because I hate to think that this marks the beginning of a change in direction that will extend beyond this album.

Spears of Heaven is not without its positives, or its moments of greatness. There are a few good tracks to be found here, like "Flame of Doom" and "Sun Wind." If these songs weren't brought down a bit by the too-clean production, they would have been even better. "Sun Wind" even contains some energetic riffs that the album could have used more of. But then he finishes the album with "Return to the Northern Carpathian," which wouldn't be a bad track except for the almost four and a half minute intro, which is pretty bland and even contains some odd Hammond organ-sounding keys that gives it almost a 70's prog-rock vibe. Without the intro, this is a pretty solid track. It closes the album in good fashion, with some nice riffs and even some of that atmosphere I was looking for as the last few minutes wind down. It would also probably be among the shortest Graveland tracks of the last decade and a half, so maybe he felt the need to extend it with a pointless and long introduction.

Maybe I'm just missing something here. It wouldn't be the first time. It took me several months and several listens in various contexts before I could appreciate the greatness of Thousand Swords. Perhaps this is an album that will grow on me or even "click" with me as others have. I put off writing this review for a long time, hoping that my initial feelings were wrong. But now, several months after purchasing Spears of Heaven, and many, many listens later, I'm just not feeling anything towards it. It's not painful to listen to (unless being somewhat bored brings pain to you), but when I listen to it, I often think about what I would rather be listening to, like Thousand Swords, Memory and Destiny, or Fire Chariot of Destruction.

It's not difficult for me to recommend Graveland, but it is difficult for me to recommend Spears of Heaven, except to hardcore Graveland fans and completists. But, then again, maybe it was unfair for me to expect another album with an atmosphere of war? The prevalent theme of Spears of Heaven seems to be Valkyries, so perhaps that could explain the change. Whatever the reason, I hope that the next Graveland album proves that this is only a small speed-bump, and that Darken will be back on track to inspire us again.

Album Review: Dalriada - Arany-Album

Artist: Dalriada (Hungary)
Album Title: Arany-Album
Record Label: Nail Records (Hungary)
Released: 2009

One of my favorite folk metal bands, Dalriada, is back with an awesome new album, this time with all lyrics taken from the great Hungarian poet János Arany. Once again, this album seems to have gotten little promotion or distribution outside of Hungary, so I ordered it from the Hungarian Music Store on Ebay. This is an annoyance I've brought up on the past two Dalriada reviews I did, and the problem continues so I'm mentioning it again.

Anyway, despite the obscurity of the band and the difficulty in legally obtaining their releases, all of Dalriada's albums thus far have been worth the trouble to find, in my opinion, and Arany-Album is no exception. This album contains 13 tracks (with no throw-away or filler tracks to be found), the first seven being brand new songs and the other six being re-recordings of songs from past Dalriada/Echo of Dalriada releases. The six re-recorded songs include the three songs that made up the original Echo of Dalriada demo, A Walesi Bárdok, plus three songs whose original versions appeared on Fergeteg, Jégbontó, and Kikelet, respectively. The seven new songs make up a little more than 40 minutes of the album, while the remainder of the 75 total minutes of Arany-Album are the re-recordings.

It hasn't been very long since the 2008 release of Szelek, and the band still sounds much the same (a unique form of folk-infused power/gothic metal with female and male vocals, and a few elements of extreme metal thrown into the mix), with some changes and additions to the personnel. Bassist György Varga and keyboard player András Kurz (the latter of whom was relied on very heavily for the folk parts on the previous album) are gone. In their place are István Molnár and Barnabás Ungár, respectively. I'm not sure if it's the result of having a new keyboard player, but the synths are not as prominent on this album as they were on Szelek, where they mimicked instruments such as the accordion. On the seven new tracks the band is joined by some guest musicians, including a flute player and a few strings players. Violin, viola, double bass, some form of lute, and perhaps other instruments for which I could not find English translations are used on the album. These instruments appear prominently in the new tracks, and greatly enhance the songs on which they appear. However, the band apparently made the decision not to use these instruments on the six re-recorded tracks (except for a short part on the last track), so those are mostly unchanged from the earlier versions, other than improved recording quality, some changes in vocals, and some different keyboard arrangements. Speaking of vocals, drummer Tadeusz Rieckmann contributed low, death metal-like growls at various parts, while guitarist/vocalist András Ficzek handles the higher-pitched shrieks along with his normal sung vocals. Oh, and vocalist Laura Binder plays flute again on this album, something she used to do but hasn't done (at least in a recording) since Jégbontó.

All right, now that that's out of the way, how are the new tracks? Quite excellent! The album begins in strong form with "Zách Klára," a song that will likely be considered a Dalriada classic. This song is pretty epic, with a lot of mood and tempo changes. It's mostly a pretty upbeat song, with great vocals from András, Laura, and Tadeusz, some fast folky parts, and even a wicked keyboard solo. The band doesn't really capitalize on that momentum, however, and slow things down after that. Most of the album is kept at a medium pace, and the band confidently strides through the new material, showing their strong instrumental and songwriting abilities while keeping things tasteful. The album is strongly melodic, and the melodies are unlike what you'll normally hear in any sort of metal. They seem to be strongly influenced by Hungarian folk music. If you're getting tired of hearing the same types of melodies from folk metal bands, you might find Dalriada to be refreshing. Another standout track on the album is "Szent László (2. rész)," which has irresistible vocal harmonizing and some nice violin parts.

I must mention that the vocals are an area where this band has notably improved over the years. András has learned to lean on the strengths of his range rather than strain his voice to reach a lot of high notes, and his vocal lines weave wonderfully within the vocal lines of Laura Binder, whose voice only grows more enchanting with every Dalriada release. Sometimes they harmonize, sometimes they'll sing back and forth (like a conversation), while other times they'll be singing entirely different things at the same time, yet it all goes together well.

There's a noticeable shift that takes place between the new tracks and the re-recorded tracks. The band has made a lot of progressions in their songwriting over the years, but they don't bother to change the older songs much, so even if you're not familiar with the original recordings you may notice the change in the middle of Arany-Album. The biggest improvements, particularly in the songs from A Walesi Bárdok and Fergeteg, are in the production and the performances themselves. The band has come a long way since their demo days, and I must admit that it's very nice to hear these songs re-recorded. It makes me wonder what the rest of Fergeteg would sound like re-recorded. The changes are less noticeable on the two chapters that make up "Szondi Két Apródja," as the originals still stand up quite well. The second chapter's prominent (and strangely futuristic sounding) synth part has been done away with on the re-recording, which was impossible for me to not notice.

Dalriada has paid a worthy metal tribute to a great poet with Arany-Album. One can hardly imagine that Arany would not be pleased with and honored by what the band has done here, metal fan or not. Hungary may not have much in the way of bands in this genre, but they have a reason to be proud with Dalriada carrying the banner for Hungarian folk metal. With the Arany-Album, they've added to their impressive discography and have crafted an album that can stand alongside the very best the genre has to offer. Authentic, sincere, musically adept and with great songwriting skills; what more can one ask for?

Not surprisingly, I highly recommend this one.

Album Review: Velvet Cacoon - P aa opal Poere Pr. 33

Artist: Velvet Cacoon (United States)
Album Title: P aa opal Poere Pr. 33
Record Label: Starlight Temple Society (United States)
Released: 2009

Velvet Cacoon doesn't fall under pagan metal by any means, but this is one of the few non-pagan black metal projects in which I still have any interest at all (the others would probably be Leviathan/Lurker of Chalice, and Blut Aus Nord). I'm admittedly drawn to the mysteries and scandals of music artists, and Velvet Cacoon has been a constant source of both over the years. If you haven't familiarized yourself with the VC saga, pop yourself some popcorn and spend a few hours online trying to make sense of it all. It's ridiculous. Velvet Cacoon is a sea of misinformation, pretension, nonexistent releases, and stolen releases. My conclusion after the four years or so that I've been listening to this project is that it started as a typical "bedroom" one-man black metal project, but the guy behind it ("Josh") decided that he wanted some notoriety while also exploiting the gullible nature of music fans and their hunger for mystery, so he surrounded the project with outlandish claims. Reading interviews with the guy makes me roll my eyes so much they actually start to hurt. If it weren't for the fact that Velvet Cacoon occasionally makes music that I find very interesting and enjoyable, I would have jumped ship a long time ago.

P aa opal Poere Pr. 33 was announced, I believe, in 2007, and artwork and a tracklisting were released for the album before anything had even been recorded. When the music-stealing scandal took place, it appeared as if the album would never see the light of day, and long-suffering label Full Moon Productions scrambled to pacify VC fans and released a CD version of old demo Dextronaut, along with a bonus CD of bland "dark ambient" music. This year FMP released a double-CD of similarly bland ambient music of Velvet Cacoon titled Atropine, and I just assumed that P aa opal Poere Pr. 33 had been swept under the carpet.

Velvet Cacoon's 2004 album Genevieve and 2005 follow-up/predecessor (depending on what you believe) Northsuite are two albums I really enjoy. They feature obscure, atmospheric black metal with vocals that take the form of sickly hisses, simple but effective melodies, and hints of piano and ambient music. Supposedly, the lyrics are inspired by both nature and drugs. I don't know if that's true at all, but it provides VC with an interesting backdrop that sets them apart from most black metal bands. When I saw P aa opal Poere Pr. 33 listed among the VC discography on Encyclopedia Metallum, I assumed it was a hoax. I was surprised to find out later that not only did it exist, but that it was a metal album. I was further surprised to see that it was released on artsy D.I.Y. label Starlight Temple Society rather than Full Moon Productions, but the positive to all this was that the album was very inexpensive to purchase and it is uniquely packaged. The disc is in a black paper sleeve similar to how some software discs come packaged. The paper sleeve slips inside what appears to be an oversized CD insert (I believe it's the size of what would come with a 7" vinyl release), so the great artwork is larger than what you'd usually get. This is then inserted into a black envelope with two lines of poetry embossed in silver on the front, and finally the whole package is put inside a resealable cellophane packet. Artsy, yes. Pretentious, perhaps. But pretty nice, though I can't fit it among my CD's, which is a bit of a pain.

The biggest surprise, however, is the music itself. It doesn't sound much at all like Genevieve or Northsuite, except that it's still atmospheric and somewhat mysterious. The music on P aa opal Poere Pr. 33 is what I would describe as very slow, doom-ish black metal. The pace is generally kept to a crawl, and the melody is largely driven by the bass and what sounds to my ears like a person humming along with the bass. Yeah, it's a little weird. It reminds me a bit of one of the Forest (the Blazebirth Hall band) CD's in that respect. The vocals, for the most part, are done by someone called "Cain" from a Canadian black metal band called Snowfall. I've never heard Snowfall, but they seem like they're about as pretentious as Velvet Cacoon, except with an emphasis on drinking heavy amounts of alcohol along with their drugs. Eh, whatever. They could have gotten just about anyone to do vocals and it couldn't have been much less interesting than Cain's performance on this CD, which is inoffensive but utterly unremarkable. Fortunately, "Josh" himself contributes vocals towards the end of the album, on "Oviamoire" and "Sovarine." That these two tracks are probably the strongest on the album may or may not be coincidental. The drums appear to be provided by a drum machine, but it sounds pretty solid and contains more complex patterns than the largely-blasting nature of the drum machine on Genevieve. According to the insert, the music is by SGL ("Josh") and LVG ("Angela"). "Angela" supposedly plays guitar. "She" also does some of the interviews. I don't believe that "Angela" actually exists at all, and nor do the other six or eight or however many other women who were allegedly members of Velvet Cacoon during the period when it was self-described as a collective of musicians.

Six of the eight tracks on the album are metal, while one is an instrumental, somewhat ambient piece, and the other consists of a man and a woman whispering to each other in French. They appear to be in a tent next to a crackling fire, but I don't know what's supposed to be going on. Like much of the mystery around Velvet Cacoon, it probably means nothing at all. Overall the album has a nautical theme. The poetry embossed on the envelope describe a crab crawling along the bottom of the sea, and Chesapeake Bay (in the Virginia and Maryland area of the United States' East coast) is mentioned by name in the insert.

This is a strange album. I would expect nothing less than a project as weird as Velvet Cacoon. However, it's also a unique and enjoyable album. There are some very nice, but dark, melodies, and an enveloping, cavernous atmosphere that would be especially interesting to listen to in the proper context (or, less likely, in the proper drug-altered state, according to the claims of "Josh").

The only thing I don't like about this album is the fact that it wasn't released by Full Moon Productions. With all that VC has put that label through over the years (FMP has had to act as a spokesperson for "Josh" and went into damage control mode after the music-stealing scandal of 2007), the least "Josh" could have done is allowed them to release what is actually a pretty fine follow-up to Genevieve and Northsuite. Instead, FMP gets stuck with Atropine, an ambient album that even they don't seem enthusiastic about putting forth the effort to release, and unknown artsy label Starlight Temple Society gets the privilege to present P aa opal Poere Pr. 33. I'm sure that the folks at STS are fine people, but it doesn't seem fair to deny FMP the chance to release this album on their label, being as how they've stuck with VC through years of lies.

Ah, whatever. A good album for black metal fans looking for something unique but highly listenable.

Album Review: Hellveto - Od Południa na Północ...

Artist: Hellveto (Poland)
Album Title: Od Południa na Północ...
Record Label: Ritual Execution Productions (Poland)
Released: 2009

Before Hellveto's Neoheresy was released in late 2008, there was a build-up of anticipation due to the promotion given the album by Pulverised Records. They have been the primary label of Hellveto since 2006's In the Glory of Heroes, while at the same time band mastermind L.O.N. has used his own Ritual Execution label to release reissues of demos and compilations of new and old Hellveto material. However, in the case of Hellveto's first 2009 release Od Południa na Północ... --and I say first because there is a second full-length, Kry, scheduled to be released at the end of 2009-- the Ritual Execution label was used to release a full-length album of brand-new material, and it arrived with no hype or promotion. It's also limited to 1,000 copies, I believe. I was excited when I found out about this album, as I am always in the mood for new Hellveto, so I picked it up as soon as I could, thanks to Red Stream's distro.

If you're familiar with 2008's Neoheresy, or at least the artwork, you may notice that the artwork of Od Południa na Północ... is very similar. This, plus the fact that there is a song called "World of Neoheresy" on the new album, leads me to conclude that this new album is meant to be a companion of sorts to Neoheresy. Hellveto albums are sometimes criticized because they sound so similar, but to fans, each album gains its own identity with repeated listens. However, in this case, it really does sound like a companion piece to Neoheresy. The title track, which opens the album, even sounds very similar to Neoheresy's opening track, "Taran," except a few minutes shorter.

If you're already familiar with Hellveto, you already know what to expect: high quality orchestral pagan black metal, which basically means it sounds like black metal performed with an orchestra along with the traditional guitars, bass, and drums. There have been a number of bands utilizing orchestral music programs in recent years, like Turisas and now Ensiferum, but L.O.N. has been doing this with his Hellveto and Blakagir projects for a decade now, and he continues to improve his craft while releasing a steady stream of full-lengths.

Od Południa na Północ... is another high-quality release in the Hellveto catalogue, and by now you may already know whether or not you want this CD. If you're among those who haven't heard the work of this great, underrated artist, I recommend you check out one of the many full-length albums released over the years. Almost all of them are a great place to start, including this latest CD. It doesn't really tread any new ground, though it does seem to bring back the distorted, Filosofem-era Burzum vocals on a few tracks, and it does seem to emphasize the orchestra more than Neoheresy did. However, for the most part, this is good, familiar Hellveto, and for me and many other fans, that's quite good enough.

New Arkona and Menhir videos

I would embed these if I could, but it messes up the formatting (on my computer, at least), so just follow the links:

Arkona - "Goi, Rode, Goi!"

Menhir - "Das Hildebrandslied (Teil I)"

Album Review: Drudkh - Microcosmos

Artist: Drudkh (Ukraine)
Album Title: Microcosmos
Record Label: Season of Mist (France/U.S.)
Released: 2009

The mysterious Drudkh may have faltered a bit since 2006's fantastic Blood In Our Wells, but their new album Microcosmos shows the band back on top of their game. That's not to say that their folk album Songs of Grief & Solitude and their 2007 full-length Estrangement aren't worthy releases (I can't say anything for the Anti-Urban EP, as I haven't heard it), but they seemed to have halted in their tracks, unable to progress or to top classics like Autumn Aurora or Blood In Our Wells.

In the meantime, allegedly a business deal gone bad resulted in the band falling into debt, and as a result they moved from longtime UK label Supernal Music to the larger and better-distributed label Season of Mist. It may not have been Drudkh's intent to garner more attention, but that seems to be what happened. There was a lot of anticipation and debate leading up to the release of Microcosmos, so it was a bit of a relief to find that Drudkh is still one of the more important bands in the genre and deserve the growing attention they've been receiving, whether or not they welcome it.

The four lengthy metal tracks on Microcosmos are bookended by two traditional instrumental pieces, which should not be a surprise to anyone by now. And when track #2, Далекий Крик Журавлів ("Distant Cries of Cranes"), begins in rather familiar fashion, one might be tempted to think that Drudkh had taken a "by the numbers" approach to their new album. However, after a few minutes it became apparent to me that this was not the case. The sound may not be new, but the band has progressed in subtle ways, while also smoothing out the rough edges that marred Estrangement. There is a warm, poetic atmosphere to "Distant Cries of Cranes," an atmosphere that would continue throughout the remaining tracks. Microcosmos has a reflective, majestic sound, but not particularly brutal or angry despite Thurios' shouted black metal vocals.

Also notable is the brilliant bass-playing, presumably by Roman Saenko or possibly Krechet, and the much-improved drumming of Vlad. The drumming and the drum recording was a definite weak spot on Estrangement, but that's completely washed away with the varied and highly competent performance on this album. And I can't say enough about the solos, which are present on each of the metal tracks and are always appropriate and tasteful. They never overstay their welcome and are used to add another layer to the expertly-woven fabric that is each excellent track, rather than to show off skills or to pad out a song.

Декаданс ("Decadence") begins with a pleasant riff that possibly goes on a little too long, but a nice build-up occurs during the repetition of this riff (kind of like the beginning of Darkestrah's "The Silk Road") and after a few minutes it switches to one of the more melancholic-sounding sections of the album. The mood seems to shift often on this track, which may correspond with the mood of the lyrics but I'm not sure.

"Ars Poetica" begins with a rather bright and sunny riff that initially sounds out of place, but it melts so nicely into the rest of the song that it no longer seems so incongruous. The song turns melancholy for a while and then becomes nothing short of incredible. The track ends in a most satisfying manner, and by this point the album should have silenced all but the most stubborn critics.

But there's still more. Все, Що Не Сказано Раніше ("Everything Unsaid Before") picks up the pace and throws in what is probably the most technical set of guitar solos on the Microcosmos. Some acoustic guitars, accompanied by the bass, bridge the gap between the long intro of the song and the point where the vocals begin, at around the 3:30 mark. This is probably the closest the band gets to sounding angry on this album, as this song is a little darker and less "sunny" than the song before it. The track ends with a particularly dark riff that fades into the folk outro, ending the album on a mysterious note.

While the sound of Microcosmos (lush riffs, lengthy songs, melancholic atmosphere) is familiar Drudkh, it would be erroneous to say that the band is treading water or taking the same road they've traveled many times before. I find that the song structures are more complex than can be found on their earlier albums, with more in the way of mood and time changes. Autumn Aurora is a classic, but enjoying it requires a longer attention span than is needed to enjoy this album. Will some say that Drudkh is going "commercial" or "mainstream" with Microcosmos? Possibly, but I think it is more likely that Microcosmos is the product of a band that is maturing and becoming more comfortable with its sound but, at the same time, refuses to be boxed in. They seem to exist in a world apart from the critics, the fans, the expectations, and the endless forum debates (most of which end up turning into a political argument anyway), yet the most important part of all, crafting great songs, is obviously still high on Drudkh's priority list.

Microcosmos is the album to beat in 2009, in my opinion. If you're new to Drudkh, this is as good a place to start as any, and if you're already a fan, there's no reason you shouldn't own this. And if anyone tells you that extreme metal is morbid, thoughtless, and has little value for intelligent people, Microcosmos would be a good album to play in order to silence their ignorance.

Album Review: Крада - Аз Есьм Огонь!

Artist: Крада (Krada) [Russia]
Album Title: Аз Есьм Огонь! (I Am Fire!)
Record Label: Volh Records (Russia)
Released: 2009

Volh Records has managed to track down another obscure Russian gem in the band Krada. They are a mysterious band, with no member credits, no website or Myspace, and no information about where and when they formed. Judging from the band pictures I've seen, Krada looks to be a young band, and rather "normal" looking for metal musicians (no long hair, face paint, costumes, etc.). The unassuming exterior hides a fierce, raging pagan fire of a metal band, one that can compete with just about any other in the genre when it comes to musical ferocity and anger.

Their first album, Steps, which was released in 2008, showed promise yet was not anything spectacular. Krada practically sounded like two different bands on that CD: the one being a rather typical symphonic black metal band, blasting along at a thousand miles per hour; the other being nice-sounding folk band. Only on one track, the title track of that album, did it all manage to more or less mesh together. On their sophomore release, the appropriately titled I Am Fire!, it appears that the split personalities of Krada have blended into one great metal band with a healthy dose of folk to give it some nice pagan atmosphere.

A lot of the aforementioned ferocity of the band comes from the vocalist, whose venom-filled voice is given a lot of room to snarl its way through the songs. His voice has that really angry sound that reminds me of the vocals of Rodosvet and Dub Buk. In fact, the overall style of Krada would fit pretty well between those two bands. It's black metal but with varied pacing and some thrash metal in the mix. The drummer does far more than just blastbeats on the album, though those are still easy to find. Some competent flute playing, audible bass, mild but atmospheric keyboards, and occasional female vocals and what sounds like a zhaleika add some flavor to the album.

The production sounds good but not over-polished. The instruments are all clearly audible, and the guitar sound is kept just raw enough to give it some grit but not so raw that you can't hear the melodic riffs. In other words, the album sounds great and I wouldn't change anything about the production.

Unlike the too-brief debut album, this one clocks in at a solid 40 minutes and doesn't waste much of its playing time. There are two brief instrumentals among the eleven tracks, one being an arrangement of a Rimsky-Korsakov piece, apparently. The strange thing about the CD is that it is divided into two chapters. The first chapter ends with a nice Russian-language cover of Burzum's "War," which is track 7 on this disc, and then track 8 begins the second chapter of the album with an instrumental, followed by two metal tracks and another instrumental. Was this second chapter originally meant to be a separate recording? I have no idea. At least it all seems to go together and doesn't create a distraction when I listen to it.

Krada is a good fit for the solid Volh Records lineup and I hope to hear more from this young band. They're not a well-known name in Eastern European pagan metal yet, but this album is good enough that they should gain some well-deserved attention. If you're a fan of the other bands on that label, like Piarevaracien or Znich, or bands like Kamaedzitca, Rodosvet, and Dub Buk, you'll probably find Krada's I Am Fire! to be a welcome addition to your collection.