Orkblut was the second release from Austrian black metal warlords Abigor, a concept album of epic proportions despite the length of only 23 minutes, following the quest of a mythical warrior ”storming onwards on pagan paths”, spilling quite an amount of kristian blood on the way!

From the demo-era material heard in ”Verwüstung” they have advanced both artistically and technically to explore musicality to directions less obvious, less basic but yet primal and furious. The vocals of Silenius are even more powerful here, full of warrior spirit, rage and strength. The beginning of ”The Rising of Our Tribe” (”I sent black birds to the sky; I set a sign for my hate; to darken the day; to beat back the light.”) is one of the moments of METAL burned into my remembrance for all time.

There is no breathing space in this concept-album, so compact it is. It is needless to separate songs or parts of songs from it, it’s all a flow of metal, emotion and imagery, from the intro with prophetic declaration, growl and foreboding chords to the outro fading away it’s beautifully desolate lonely flute melody into the silence of death.

There are moments of epic keyboards preparing us to face proudly the battles ahead, some of the fastest, most furious and skillfully played war-metal-rage, medieval-atmosphere acoustics, moments of pain, angst and emptiness with the sad and twisted melodies hanging in the space below the tortured vocals as if cut from between and left to die.

As could be expected from a record with so little length and so much inspiration, there is almost no repetition at all. This could have been expanded into an album twice it’s length by simply repeating the riffs more, but that is not necessary and it would not even be sensible, because as it is now, it is a uniquely intense experience.

© 1999 black hate