Lord Wind - trailer of the upcoming video

Here you can watch a trailer of the upcoming video for 'Nothing is
Dark During Sunrise' from last Lord Wind's album 'Ales Stenar'. You can
also purchase an album via Wolftyr Prods (CD and LP) or Werewolf
Promotions (cassetes). 

Lord Wind is a neofolk side-project of Rob Darken (Graveland).

Woodtemple - new album trailer

I've received such an information, so I am posting it here. You can watch new trailer of Woodtemple and check if their (or better his) upcoming album "Forgotten Pride" will be something interesting for you:

Album will be released in January or February 2014 via Sturmklang Records.

Graveland - "Thunderbolts of the Gods" (2013)

Graveland

"Thunderbolts of the Gods"

No Colours Recs.

2013

Graveland is a well-known amongst fans of pagan metal polish project founded by Rob Darken in 1991 in Wrocław. "Thunderbolts..." is a 13th album of this veteran. 

One thing is certain - Rob decided to use all of his experience to create another good opus. For some time Rob was creating much slower albums, full of epic war hymns. Yet lately he is dropping it and returns to more extreme areas. The album is full of tempo-changes - from slow parts with usage of acoustic guitars and choir samples to fast, furious atacks. That positively influences a diversity of the music, so it is a good idea. Yet everybody who is following the band will discover here nothing new. Graveland is simply following the path that it has chosen many years ago - and so it brings us another portion of characteristic epic pagan metal sound. The music is not very complicated and a bit raw - the riffs thanks to the production are a bit noisy, yet tunes are highly memorable. There are more epic tracks ("Wolf of the North") and more agaressive moments (opening "Possessed by Steel"). And as I see it - it is better, more dynamic than last recordings. It simply kicks ass. I was affraid that "Thunderbolts..." will be just "another" position in Darken's discography, well producted but a bit emotionless. Yet this time I listen to something authentic, full of rage and passion!

Oh, and about a production. It's the same as last Graveland's releases, but that's a good thing because I simply love it. Organic, yet genuinely highlighting the epicness of the music (especially great parts of choirs). No critical notes here.

There is nothing more to write - and the thing is simple: if you like last releases of this band, you will certainly admire "Thunderbolts...". It is not original at all, yet it is a good portion of epic tunes in the characteristic style of almighty Graveland.

Rate: 8/10

Vladyka

Here you can watch a trailer of the upcoming videoclip:

Tracklist:

1. Possessed by Steel

2. Thunderbolts of the Gods

3. Chamber of Wicked Tears

4. Wolf of the North

5. Red Polaris

6. When Hammer Shines (outro)

Lord Wind - "Ales Stenar" (2012)

Lord Wind

"Ales Stenar"

Wolftyr Prods.

2012

Lord Wind is a medievel/neofolk project of Rob Darken, mostly known from his other project Graveland. A year before he released his 5th folk album, called as you can see "Ales Stenar". And what it contains?
First of all, the music is completely instrumental. Quite often we can hear choir samples made on keyboard, but this is the only exception. For most of the time the music bases on calm tunes played in middle-tempo on traditional instruments. Darken is obviously inspired by celtic and nordic music, along with some epic movie soundtracks - and a proof we can find in the track number eight. It is a (let say) cover of theme song taken from "Conan" movie (and I don't know which one, since I am not as big fan of the Cimmerian as Rob ;]). All the songs are played in the same way - they have similar tempos, and are played on similar instruments. We can here viola here, mentioned choirs and sometimes some keyboard-based background effects, horns, percussion, wooden fluets and propably some other things. And well, I must say that I enjoy this album very much. It's nothing extremely deep, but to be honest it is a true pleasure when the music flows in headphones during some long trip in a forest or on countryside. It's a bit hypnotic from one side, but also in some way epic. Just listen to any of this songs, close your eyes and you will see beautiful landscapes of vast, grass plains or huge, frozen mountains. If you have at least minimum of imagination of course haha! Personally I am impressed, because otherwise than some people think it's hard to play simple music in such way that it sounds interesting. Rob defenitely achieved this goal - the music passes so quickly that I have to constantly push the replay button again and again.

Oh, and by the way - the production of this album is really perfect. I enjoy it very much - if you have listened to last Graveland's albums you should know what I am talking about.
Well, I think that's it. There is nothing more to talk about - you like that kind of playing or not. If you're a fan of medieval and neofolk music you will surely like "Ales Stenar". If not, you should try either - maybe it turns out that this album suits your taste. As for me, I am sure that this longplay will be an often guest in my music player.

Rate: 9/10
Vladyka

Tracklist:

1. Ales Stenar

2. Taken by Your Eyes

3. Music of the Gods

4. Nothing Is Dark During Sunrise

5. Freya come to us!

6. Invisible Door to Oblivion

7. El Cid

8. Temple od Snakes

9. Cult of Seth

10. Epic Dawn Begins

Graveland / Biały Viteź - "Ogień Wilczych Serc" (2012)

Graveland / Biały Viteź

"Ogień Wilczych Serc"

Eastside

2012

This is the split release of the two polish bands - a well known in pagan metal scene Graveland and lesser known Biały Viteź (the guys have only one demo and other split on their account). The cover artwork is really good, so you are propably asking yourself "is their music really good too?". Well you can think no more, and simply satisfy your curiosity by reading this review.

The three first tracks are recorded by Graveland, so I'll start with this band. Generally speaking, there is not much to say. One of those three tracks is "Biała Husaria" - a song previously known under an english name "White Winged Hussary". And well, it's very good, and sounds really fantastic. But I really don't know why Rob decided to rerecord this song. The two new hymns are a bit faster. Rob again entered into a more aggressive areas, with blast beats and more furious riffing. Thanks to a great, organic production they sound like they were supposed to sound - very epic, and at the same time very atmospheric and powerfull. Fans of Graveland should be pleased by this release, even if it's really nothing new.
The second part of this split belongs to folk metallers from Biały Viteź. They creativeness is much closer to what was invented by the eastern pagan metal bands. As in Graveland's case the sound is really powerfull, but at the same time a bit more dirty and underground. Guitar riffs are evidently inspired by the polish black metal hords from the '90s, while atmospheric parts of keyboards sounds a bit like Drudkh. But don't worry, the guys from BV are not a copycats, and their create something fresh. The metal parts together with usage of folk instruments and "mystical" keyboard sound really interesting, for 100% in slavic vain, which is a great advantage in immersion of celtic and nordic bands. By the way folk parts really remind me Jar -  it only shows that BV is really into polish pagan scene, and not just another bunch of jolly dumbasses.
The vocals on this album are sung in very characteristic way - some will like that, some will not, but in my case I count it as an advantege. To be honest, the only weak element of this material is the last track - it sounds like a too long outro. I know that there must be a place for atmospheric parts, but for me some sad accords and a guy singing in the same vain for almost 4 minutes is not an "atmosphere". I call it "boredom". Happily the rest of their music sounds fantastic, and I guess that "Kędy mój los" will be a concert killer - there is a place for aggressive mosh, and for the epic singing. Ideallly, hehe.
To sum up: for fans of pagan metal this split will be something like a pearl in the sea of crap. It's really worth to have this album - especially because of great part recorded by Biały Viteź.

Rate: Graveland: 7/10, Biały Viteź: 8+/10
Vladyka

Tracklist:
Graveland:
1. Zimno z za szarego horyzontu
2. Pancerna Pięść
3. Biała Husaria
---
Biały Viteź:
4. Intro - ku chwale
5.  Na swój miecz
6. Gdzie umiera dzień
7. Kędy mój los
8. Kiedy skonam