Graveland
Immortal Pride
[No Colours]
Another worthy addition to the brilliant Graveland catalogue.
Basically, its Darken's most "ambitious" undertaking, and for
the most part, he's done a great job.
First off, is the intro, "Day Of Fury", a short ye olde military hymn, an amalgamation of material from the "Conan" soundtrack, and Darken's inimitable Lord Wind folk/black/ambient project.
The first song-proper, is the monstrous "Sons Of Fire And Steel (Servants Of War)", which starts off with truly epic, ominous chord picking, thick doomy keyboards, and backed by a sparse seagull chorus, which springs upright, into an almost "happy" keyboard-soaked viking beat, much brighter than anything Hades ever did, and somewhat akin to the "heroic" nature of Bathory's "Blood On Ice". (I still quietly smile to myself when I think of how Capricornus developed, and executed these drum lines.)
The song then luuurches into familiar grim, transcendence, as seen on their "Thousand Swords" album, Darken's drunken, brain dead vocals still sour and unholy as ever. The rest of the song is an epic mix of "Thousand Swords", with Bathory's "Blood On Ice", (I know Darken would like that to be "...Bathory's 'Hammerheart'..", but its the truth.) which at the 20min mark, fades into the sound of raging horse-backed sword fights, then gradually picks back up to another Lord Wind-esque military march, ending the song with a *very* goofy sounding female-spoken-word interlude.
"Sacrifice For Honour" is the 2nd song on offer. After the first few (very heroic/happy guitar) lines, this song is more DOOM than BLACK...kinda like "Thousand Swords" (without the psychotic drumming), also drawing on "Hammerheart" in large, healthy doses. At the 7min30sec mark, Darken comes the closest (IMO) to actually ripping off Bathory. The song "breaks" into one of those weak rock riffs/beats, just as Bathory did somewhere on Hammerheart, or BFD, or wherever the hell it was. I can't remember, and I'm too tired to go downstairs to get my Bathory albums. At any rate, it only lasts a few stanzas or so, so I'll forgive him...the song returns to its now-familiar pagan-plod. He even ENDS the song with an agonized Quorthon-like "arrgghhhh!!!"!
And so, on to the outro, "To Die In Glory", which is actually a casio-classical reworking of "Thurisaz", the centerpiece from their "Following The Voice Of Blood". Nice, but it doesn't quite do the song justice, not as Ihsahn's reworking of "Inno A Satana" did, anyway.
Overall, its a solid Graveland album, and indeed, better than pretty much everything else I've heard this/last year. Is it better than FTVOB? Well, you can't really compare the two. I think "Sons Of Fire And Steel" is up their in the top 3 Graveland songs ever, but at the same time, its not like anything he's done before.
8/10.
© 1999 brett
First off, is the intro, "Day Of Fury", a short ye olde military hymn, an amalgamation of material from the "Conan" soundtrack, and Darken's inimitable Lord Wind folk/black/ambient project.
The first song-proper, is the monstrous "Sons Of Fire And Steel (Servants Of War)", which starts off with truly epic, ominous chord picking, thick doomy keyboards, and backed by a sparse seagull chorus, which springs upright, into an almost "happy" keyboard-soaked viking beat, much brighter than anything Hades ever did, and somewhat akin to the "heroic" nature of Bathory's "Blood On Ice". (I still quietly smile to myself when I think of how Capricornus developed, and executed these drum lines.)
The song then luuurches into familiar grim, transcendence, as seen on their "Thousand Swords" album, Darken's drunken, brain dead vocals still sour and unholy as ever. The rest of the song is an epic mix of "Thousand Swords", with Bathory's "Blood On Ice", (I know Darken would like that to be "...Bathory's 'Hammerheart'..", but its the truth.) which at the 20min mark, fades into the sound of raging horse-backed sword fights, then gradually picks back up to another Lord Wind-esque military march, ending the song with a *very* goofy sounding female-spoken-word interlude.
"Sacrifice For Honour" is the 2nd song on offer. After the first few (very heroic/happy guitar) lines, this song is more DOOM than BLACK...kinda like "Thousand Swords" (without the psychotic drumming), also drawing on "Hammerheart" in large, healthy doses. At the 7min30sec mark, Darken comes the closest (IMO) to actually ripping off Bathory. The song "breaks" into one of those weak rock riffs/beats, just as Bathory did somewhere on Hammerheart, or BFD, or wherever the hell it was. I can't remember, and I'm too tired to go downstairs to get my Bathory albums. At any rate, it only lasts a few stanzas or so, so I'll forgive him...the song returns to its now-familiar pagan-plod. He even ENDS the song with an agonized Quorthon-like "arrgghhhh!!!"!
And so, on to the outro, "To Die In Glory", which is actually a casio-classical reworking of "Thurisaz", the centerpiece from their "Following The Voice Of Blood". Nice, but it doesn't quite do the song justice, not as Ihsahn's reworking of "Inno A Satana" did, anyway.
Overall, its a solid Graveland album, and indeed, better than pretty much everything else I've heard this/last year. Is it better than FTVOB? Well, you can't really compare the two. I think "Sons Of Fire And Steel" is up their in the top 3 Graveland songs ever, but at the same time, its not like anything he's done before.
8/10.
© 1999 brett