Grom / North / Marhoth
Sovereigns of Northernlands
[Astral Wings]
A split CD from three Polish hordes, a good idea by all means! It's not
every day we get to see three way split CDs….I can't think of very many
actually (hmm..Grave/Deviated Instinct/some other band). Anyway, these
three varied groups come from one side of the Polish scene (and most of
the bands hold the same rosters) that sports such names as My Infinite
Kingdoms, Hefeystos, Sacrilegium, and the above bastards. Let's take a
track by track look:
Grom: "On the border between two worlds": Polish folk metal basically, with clean vocals. It's somewhat sloppy for the most part, as they are trying to create a rather doomy feel. Not really my cup of tea, although it does hold a certain redeeming quality in feeling somewhat original…
North: "Sovereigns of the Northernlands" and "The Forest…": Normally very Darkthrone influenced, North seem to experiment a little bit on these two tracks. "Sovereigns…" is just plain bad in my opinion, since there's this ONE awful, repetitive note over dubbed on top of the actual track. Make it stop! "The Forest…" on the other hand is much more varied and somewhat technical. For some reason it reminded me of mid-period Amorphis (!) with the North style vocals screeching and pounding drums on top of it. Good stuff.
Marhoth: "Fog over the swamps" and "Crown of Marhoth": This band surpasses the meaning of "incredible". Why I've never even heard their name MENTIONED is beyond me. It truly is fucking disgusting when amazing music such as this is overlooked for so much garbage out there! Combining a FLAWLESS medley of folk music, stunning march/war inspired heavy metal and TORTURED black-ish screams, Marhoth easily stand out on this CD. The music stirs the deepest feeling of pride and depression from within me. Absolute fucking GENIUS!
A great release for all dark metal worshippers. Marhoth definitely have a future ahead of them, and I'll do my best to track down any and ALL releases from this impressive lot. The Polish scene again proves that it can create interesting music on all fronts….
© 1998 brand
Grom: "On the border between two worlds": Polish folk metal basically, with clean vocals. It's somewhat sloppy for the most part, as they are trying to create a rather doomy feel. Not really my cup of tea, although it does hold a certain redeeming quality in feeling somewhat original…
North: "Sovereigns of the Northernlands" and "The Forest…": Normally very Darkthrone influenced, North seem to experiment a little bit on these two tracks. "Sovereigns…" is just plain bad in my opinion, since there's this ONE awful, repetitive note over dubbed on top of the actual track. Make it stop! "The Forest…" on the other hand is much more varied and somewhat technical. For some reason it reminded me of mid-period Amorphis (!) with the North style vocals screeching and pounding drums on top of it. Good stuff.
Marhoth: "Fog over the swamps" and "Crown of Marhoth": This band surpasses the meaning of "incredible". Why I've never even heard their name MENTIONED is beyond me. It truly is fucking disgusting when amazing music such as this is overlooked for so much garbage out there! Combining a FLAWLESS medley of folk music, stunning march/war inspired heavy metal and TORTURED black-ish screams, Marhoth easily stand out on this CD. The music stirs the deepest feeling of pride and depression from within me. Absolute fucking GENIUS!
A great release for all dark metal worshippers. Marhoth definitely have a future ahead of them, and I'll do my best to track down any and ALL releases from this impressive lot. The Polish scene again proves that it can create interesting music on all fronts….
© 1998 brand