Valdrin
Beyond the Forest ()
Wydane przez Blast Head RecordsRok wydania Kraj USANapisał Kunal Choksi7,5
There aren’t many black metal bands from US playing in this style anymore. It’s not as traditional. It never is. This is Dissection meets Emperor black metal – the classic, freezing, steely black metal with aggression ensconced in melodies and sweeping grandeur. This is not the keyboard-laden circus troupe. No sir, this is the product of finely studied black metal that is confident of its art and expression. It brings to mind the recent products of Naglfar and post-Dissection bands, here the band even incorporating influences from some of its Canadian counterparts.
The album is long but it’s varied – the album starts off different, gets more ambitious in the middle and by the time you’re done your perception of it will be different from what was in the start. The music gets slower, gets more melodic and elaborate. It’s as if it’s a ploy, all geared to retain your attention. And any album that comes close nowadays to doing that is definitely worth writing home about. These days anything over 30 minutes elicits a series of frowns, sighs, curses, etc. Thankfully "Beyond the Forest" is not like that. You might get a grim smile on your face.
It’s the melodies that stand out. It always is the case. That’s what makes an album memorable. Moments like these bring to mind even the great old Agalloch circa "Pale Folklore". That coupled with moments of guitar geniuses creating smooth, somewhat turbulent (it’s metal) but always coherent and logical song parts. It’s like the mid-‘90s black metal re-presented on Blu-Ray format. The kids will wet their pants.
www.blastheadrecords.com; www.blastheadrecords.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-the-forest
