Find the coverage and some great photos of this year's Devilstone Open Air written by our Lithuanian contributor Inga here>> www
Death metal is such a limitless genre. You can do whatever you'd like. It can be over the top technical or slow. Brutal or insane and it's all so good. When we made "Visions of Death" it just came out with a natural old school-ish vibe and that's great, but our newer material has a much more modern technical vibe. I love how death metal has evolved.
For me, death metal should be heavy as fuck, brutal (which doesn't necessarily mean "fast"), atmospheric and evil. If the "evil" thing is not there, you can't label yourself death metal, that's a fact. I'm so fucking close minded when it comes to metal music... I listen to the SAME hard rock, heavy, thrash, doom, death and black metal that I used to listen to 15 years ago.
After two demos and an EP Schleswig-Holstein, Germany based Kerbenok now debut on black metal specialist label Northern Silence Productions with "O". Dealing lyrically with the circle of nature, the confused state of mankind and the great self Kerbenok have everything in store for an accomplished pagan black metal act. Musically, this is down the line of the early Scandinavian acts that followed in the footsteps of Bathory's acclaimed "Blood, Fire, Death" of 1987 with the earlier releases of Satyricon - "Dark Medieval Times" and "The Shadowthrone" - as the closest comparisons, albeit without the typical cold Norse melodies and the additional indigenous instrumentation. Combining blasting black metal with slight flirtations with gloomy traditional doom sections, occasional heavy metal riffings and jumpy thrash parts Kerbenok manage to blend a number of unlikely genres without becoming incoherent in the process. A number of session musicians spice up Kerbenok's music giving it the feel and oppressing dark atmosphere like the early releases in this genre. Besides the use of traditional instruments such as the acoustic guitars, cello, piano, vibraphone or horns, there's also the use of tabla, conga, kalimba and the querflöte which give "O" its truly pagan and majestic epic feel. Overall, "O" is an impressive and highly recommended pagan black metal album that finally does the genre justice with its bleak aggression, moody atmospheric passages and varied but strong songwriting. Together with Mörker possibly one of the best bands on the scene today.http://www.nocturnal-silence.decomment itWouter 8
