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Hail Odin! That is the essence of Germany's
Ulvhedin, a
supreme new Viking/Black Metal outfit. “Pagan Manifest”
is the band’s 2nd full-length and brings forth tremendous Nordic-style
energy like that of older Enslaved and Borknagar. With the tracks
"Element of Sorrow" and "The One-Eyed God", Olden
Domain-era Borknagar is extremely evident! While not pertaining to
anything that has already been done by others, the quartet of Ulvhedin
seem to have something others in the genre do not have... consistency
(at least, to this point). Alas... Ulvhedin have no particular melodic
base other than the deliverance of epic and powerful music in the
old-fashioned and sparingly utilized sense. This pagan offering has
a very mid-paced black metal feel with little use of keyboards. Although
there is some synth on the record, it isn't there as a mask for bad
musicianship. Now I realize Emperor and Dimmu Borgir never really
come to mind under such an assumption, but then we all know that a
lot of black metal hides it's elite personality with either keyboards
or over-rated raw styles. Now there are obviously some flaws on Pagan
Manifest such as the quirks of vocal harmonies from time to time and
the occasional missed-picking of their higher note precisions, but
they are of the minority of bands in this field of play. They are
of the elite and present some great artwork, great songs, and great
production! These guys are just flat-out amazing for this style of
metal. This is definitely an album that should not be ignored by anybody
with correlation to bands like Borknagar (Olden Domain-era) or Satyricon
(Nemesis Divina-era). I'm just hoping that these ideas do not go astray
with future releases. I doubt it, but only time will tell.... Rating: 83 Reviewed By: Thomas Mitchell |
