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).
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:
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.
