Mastiphal
For a Glory of All Evil Spirits, Rise for Victory
[Nocturn]
One of the more modern (well, they have been releasing demos since '93
on the same label that released Christ Agony's demo material) and
"non-raw" bands coming out of Poland. For those of you who hate the
traditional (and much better!!!) "raw" black metal scene coming out of
Poland, you can purchase this, and when someone goes "do you like any
Polish bands", you can say "yes, I like Mastiphal".
Basically, the music here is somewhat in the earlier Emperor vein,
filled with keyboards, highly rasped vocals, and seemingly epic
atmospheres. The drums here are far less chaotic than any Emperor
material though, and are actually quite tight sounding. Guitars are
quite simple, and are basic fast paced riffs.
As I mentioned before, the music is quite synth laden. Much like
Emperor, they allow for the synths to take control of the music, and
create the general ambience. Take track two for example, at about two
minutes in, the music is dropped for a tasteful keyboard section, again
very reminiscent of Emperor. At times the band also create some more
"pagan" sounding music, such as on the "I can't believe that's not a
Summoning song", "Tesknota Czasow Minionych". Yes, there's really
nothing original here, but at least they do in a fashionable, and very
impressive way.
For the most part an impressive album. The band sound nothing like the
dozens of other Graveland style bands out there (which is sad in some
way), but they deserve credit for creating a solid release. They've also
signed to Fullmoon, so the band will probably hit the American crowds
soon enough. They'll probably start making worthless, and commercial
pop-music to please the yank crowds. Let's hope that's not the case.
© 1997 brand