Nachtfalke / Surturs Lohe
Transilvanian Hunger / Brennende Sturme
[Christhunt]
This is a debut vinyl of two German heathen acts from "pagan metal" field. The first side belongs to NACHTFALKE, a new band of MOONBLOOD's ex-instrumentalist Occulta Mors, while SURTURS LOHE is, I can only assume, a young and unknown horde.
It is (hopefully) obvious that NACHTFALKE delivers a cover of DARKTHRONE's classic black metal song, which once defined what "raw black metal" is all about. Occulta Mors knows all too well how to create such music, but this cover demonstrates an unsincere attempt to be "more of a catholic than the pope", so to speak. With unexisting production and -very- weak vocals (barely a coarse whisper, mostly misplaced out-of-tune and out-of-rhythm), it once again shows that covering DARKTHRONE is an ungrateful task, even though this cover is much better than the horrible "Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone" tribute (or, rather, disgrace) compilation by norwegian sexual minorities.
SURTURS LOHE, in other hand, didn't deviate from "viking metal" concept, offering 6 minutes of melodic and pompous mid-tempo metal which can't really be labeled as "black" any longer. The volkish half-acoustic parts are decent, but too scarce, giving place to heavy metal-like riffs with relentless barking vocals. As a whole, the band tries to sound very epic and grandiose, but fails miserably. I have always thought the majority of so called "viking/pagan metal" is just a cross of watered down, bastardized black metal with aborted volkish tunes and MANOWAR-like heavy metal gayness, and "Brennende Sturme", sadly, is not an exception. Hopefully the band has improved on their recent full-length, but this split I would only recommend to diehard completists...
© 2002 ghaaroth
It is (hopefully) obvious that NACHTFALKE delivers a cover of DARKTHRONE's classic black metal song, which once defined what "raw black metal" is all about. Occulta Mors knows all too well how to create such music, but this cover demonstrates an unsincere attempt to be "more of a catholic than the pope", so to speak. With unexisting production and -very- weak vocals (barely a coarse whisper, mostly misplaced out-of-tune and out-of-rhythm), it once again shows that covering DARKTHRONE is an ungrateful task, even though this cover is much better than the horrible "Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone" tribute (or, rather, disgrace) compilation by norwegian sexual minorities.
SURTURS LOHE, in other hand, didn't deviate from "viking metal" concept, offering 6 minutes of melodic and pompous mid-tempo metal which can't really be labeled as "black" any longer. The volkish half-acoustic parts are decent, but too scarce, giving place to heavy metal-like riffs with relentless barking vocals. As a whole, the band tries to sound very epic and grandiose, but fails miserably. I have always thought the majority of so called "viking/pagan metal" is just a cross of watered down, bastardized black metal with aborted volkish tunes and MANOWAR-like heavy metal gayness, and "Brennende Sturme", sadly, is not an exception. Hopefully the band has improved on their recent full-length, but this split I would only recommend to diehard completists...
© 2002 ghaaroth