Graveland - Raiders of Revenge (split with Honor)
Review: Caught between developing the majestic soundtrack of Lord Wind and creating the ambient mideval metal of Graveland, the creative forces behind this band have emerged with a brilliant fusion, using all of the orchestration of Impaler's Wolves and the offhand tightness of Creed of Iron to make four tracks of expansive and dynamic black metal. These use the shorter riffing of recent full lengths from this band but invoke, in a style reminiscent of Lord Wind, longer melodies with a greater attention to tonal and rhythmic shape in melding multiple themes into a coherent narrative. The result sounds halfway to ambient music but maintains the powerful and literal elocution of metal.