Bagatur
Сказание за Древнобългарското Величие ()
Wydane przez Thor’s Hammer ProductionsRok wydania Kraj BulgariaNapisał Wouter5
Bagatur is a black metal duo from Bulgaria, comprised of Alexander Ivanov (of NS black metal act Aryan Art) and female singer Yanga. The album title roughly translates to ‘The Legend Of Drevnoblgarkso Greatness’. For a moment not considering this band’s political ideology Bagatur is anything but an essential outfit in the broadest meaning of the word. The label describes this as ‘epic pagan black metal art’, but there are several crucial things wrong with this release. There’s the amateurish production. The guitar sound is thin and inaudible most of the times, the drums sound reasonably but miss power and these overbearing melodramatic keyboards, organs and battle samples aren’t exactly new to this genre either. Yanga’s vocals are nothing but a few spoken words and limp whispers. There’s the factor of redundancy as Poland’s Graveland has covered this particular niche in black metal for well over a decade now. For all intents and purposes Bagatur is typical underground black metal and to call this ‘art’ would be an insult to the actual Scandinavian forebearers of this genre, such as the early works of Emperor, Enslaved, Satyricon and the likes. All things considered this release by Bagatur would be tolerable if released locally in a limited pressing, as it is heavily dependent on Bulgarian cultural heritage and East-European sensibilities. Overall, this isn’t exactly the worst thing on the scene, but on the other hand there are so many more accomplished acts out there. Worth checking out if you are a fan of the style, but don’t get your expectations up too high.
www.thorshammerproductions.com
