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Having read many a great thing about this album before hearing it, I was expecting to be blown away upon first listen. I definitely wasn't. The album opens with 'Black Moon Overture', a decidedly cheesy sounding midi-fest that sounded to me more like tinny video-game music than a suitable opening for a 'black metal' album. I guess in a way it's a nice tune, but I found it pretty dull. Moving on, the next track, 'Kuyabiva', starts promisingly, with some nice synth melodies and a blasting rhythm. However, as it progresses it starts to drag, the cheap, weak, clicky drum sound that appears throughout the entire album gets frustratingly annoying after a while and most of the songs seems to drone on monotonously with truly hollow sounding synths accompanying repetitive blasting. The vocals are competent, but one-dimensional, a never-changing throaty rasp providing no reprieve from the non-distinct samey-samey feeling I get when I listen to this album. That said, the album is not a complete loss, as there are a few standout moments that raise the score a bit. The opening of 'Unholy Orahania' is pretty neat, ethnic sounding synths weave around each other to bongo drum accompaniment, creating a mystical atmosphere. 'Veles' Scrolls' has some awesome chug going on a bit later in the song, a break from the monotony of the rest of the album. 'Kolyada' has a likeable atmosphere and a moderately successful attempt at clean singing by our throat-man, and a good sense of forward motion to it, probably the best song overall. Other interesting bits pop up here and there, albeit sparsely. For these few good points, I find myself having trouble figuring out what to praise about this album, or whether it even deserves it. I'm usually quite tolerant of cheese (hey I like Cradle of Filth AND Dimmu Borgir), but this album just sounds, to be blunt, crappy. The overall sound is weak and hollow and not in no 'tr00' way neither; the drums are meek and quiet, the synths are very cheap sounding like they came out of a shitty $50 Casio keyboard, the songs often slide into repetition and sections repeat ad nauseum... It all adds together to create an album that I think deserves very little of the mass praise I have seen it given. Not a total loss but largely devoid of any real originality or depth, don't believe the hype.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Black Moon Overture |
| 2. Kuyabiva |
| 3. Goat Horns |
| 4. Unholy Orahania |
| 5. Veles' Scrolls |
| 6. Kolyada |
| 7. Eternal Circle |
: 51.45
| Buy other Nokturnal Mortum albums |
