Veles - Black Hateful Metal
Review: The more refined of the two Veles works, this disc offers Graveland-esque melodic metal with neo-medieval melodies set to the rotating refrain of a poetic cycle, and in this capacity bends noise and harmony to the same hand of expressing a melancholy and dark, morbidly warlike mood. Through varied dynamics and often a heavy use of silence, these songs express a world beyond with their dark impetus.
Like many of the Polish bands, these warriors open their grimoire of aspirations to a former time with a Darkenesque introduction of repetitive simple harmonies around clusters of related melodies to render a landscape of tone, and in their arrangement and pacing are often similar to a more aggro Dead can Dance. Resonant tones resound in competitive structures while a basic theme emerges after the panoramic of motifs collides with its own impetus and resolves to a determined, even pace. What follows next is a sensible fusion between the basic power chord folk of the first Lord Wind album and the fluid immersion of melody that Behemoth put to good use on their first album. Themes are established in four-note chord runs in two-fingered speed picking noise channeling effect, and then mutated by interludes or accompaniment from acoustic guitars. Often lead picking uses a handful of notes to make sense of a previous tremolo powerchord interchange switching sides of a cyclic structure in exchange of momentums, or allows a basic melody to ride long before changing into a light picking rendition of the same. Lengthy interludes within and between some songs give texture to an otherwise mesmerizing release. Its rhythms resemble breathing and its tones the rising and falling of elemental organization schema, like the extermination of a lost tribe or the hunting of small creatures when the predators of the forest are in famine.
While this release showcases the majesty of a certain form of black metal when merged with folk music, its extremity in presentation often obscures what is strong music with distraction from focus and aesthetic overindulgence, where the music itself is strong enough to make an impression even in repetition. Among the giants of the Polish blackmetal movement, this release is the more formalized of two from a classic band.