Album Review: Graveland - Spears of Heaven

Artist: Graveland (Poland)
Album Title: Spears of Heaven
Record Label: No Colours (Germany)
Released: 2009

I have grown to love the music of Rob Darken's epic pagan metal project Graveland over the past few years, but I hate reading most reviews of his albums. Occasionally more "mainstream" metal writers will review a Graveland album, I suppose to show how open-minded they are to listen to something they find so detestable to their political beliefs, but they can't resist hurling cheap insults at Darken or spending half the review distancing themselves from his politics so as not to leave any doubt that their own politics are much more left-wing. Well, I'm not left-wing, for the most part, so if you're waiting for me to call Darken an "utter fool" or "forest-dwelling heathen LARPmaster" like one reviewer for a major metal website called him in his listless review of Spears of Heaven, you'll be waiting for a long time.

However, as much as I am a fan of Graveland, I cannot give Spears of Heaven a ringing endorsement as I am prone to doing on this little blog. Many of the things I enjoy about Graveland --the war-like atmosphere and imagery of epic battles for the survival of our race, the fire and passion that bleeds from every riff, lyrics that stir the pride of blood even though Darken's English is less than perfect-- are absent from this recording. This is a bit baffling, as the last few albums have had these qualities and more. The previous two albums, Fire Chariot of Destruction and Will Stronger Than Death, showed what seemed to be a re-energized Darken. They are both excellent releases, among the best in Graveland's discography. I'm not sure what went wrong with Spears of Heaven.

It's not all bad, despite what I said in the last paragraph, but I expected much more. The opening, title track begins in promising fashion with a war-like atmosphere and synthesized/sampled female choir voices like Valkyries announcing the new album. But then the first riff starts, and it's uninspiring. At least the drums sound good, though they seem to lack the driving force of the drums on the last few recordings, if I'm not imagining things. Darken's voice sounds pretty standard, a sort of croaking voice that doesn't do much but deliver the lyrics. Most of the basic building blocks seem to be there, so what's missing? I think it's all about the riffs, and the drums. I'm not expecting great riffs here, but normally the music adds up to some sort of atmosphere, created by the grim riffs, the war drums, and the epic feeling delivered by the choirs and synths, and I can't help but feel that it doesn't add up on this album. Spears of Heaven doesn't really give my mind any imagery, nor does it stir anything in my mind or my blood. It lacks inspiration or fire. Darken sounds as if he, when recording this album, was momentarily lacking the passion and pride that normally drives him to create the great, epic pagan metal that Graveland normally delivers. I'm hoping that that's the case, because I hate to think that this marks the beginning of a change in direction that will extend beyond this album.

Spears of Heaven is not without its positives, or its moments of greatness. There are a few good tracks to be found here, like "Flame of Doom" and "Sun Wind." If these songs weren't brought down a bit by the too-clean production, they would have been even better. "Sun Wind" even contains some energetic riffs that the album could have used more of. But then he finishes the album with "Return to the Northern Carpathian," which wouldn't be a bad track except for the almost four and a half minute intro, which is pretty bland and even contains some odd Hammond organ-sounding keys that gives it almost a 70's prog-rock vibe. Without the intro, this is a pretty solid track. It closes the album in good fashion, with some nice riffs and even some of that atmosphere I was looking for as the last few minutes wind down. It would also probably be among the shortest Graveland tracks of the last decade and a half, so maybe he felt the need to extend it with a pointless and long introduction.

Maybe I'm just missing something here. It wouldn't be the first time. It took me several months and several listens in various contexts before I could appreciate the greatness of Thousand Swords. Perhaps this is an album that will grow on me or even "click" with me as others have. I put off writing this review for a long time, hoping that my initial feelings were wrong. But now, several months after purchasing Spears of Heaven, and many, many listens later, I'm just not feeling anything towards it. It's not painful to listen to (unless being somewhat bored brings pain to you), but when I listen to it, I often think about what I would rather be listening to, like Thousand Swords, Memory and Destiny, or Fire Chariot of Destruction.

It's not difficult for me to recommend Graveland, but it is difficult for me to recommend Spears of Heaven, except to hardcore Graveland fans and completists. But, then again, maybe it was unfair for me to expect another album with an atmosphere of war? The prevalent theme of Spears of Heaven seems to be Valkyries, so perhaps that could explain the change. Whatever the reason, I hope that the next Graveland album proves that this is only a small speed-bump, and that Darken will be back on track to inspire us again.

Album Review: Dalriada - Arany-Album

Artist: Dalriada (Hungary)
Album Title: Arany-Album
Record Label: Nail Records (Hungary)
Released: 2009

One of my favorite folk metal bands, Dalriada, is back with an awesome new album, this time with all lyrics taken from the great Hungarian poet János Arany. Once again, this album seems to have gotten little promotion or distribution outside of Hungary, so I ordered it from the Hungarian Music Store on Ebay. This is an annoyance I've brought up on the past two Dalriada reviews I did, and the problem continues so I'm mentioning it again.

Anyway, despite the obscurity of the band and the difficulty in legally obtaining their releases, all of Dalriada's albums thus far have been worth the trouble to find, in my opinion, and Arany-Album is no exception. This album contains 13 tracks (with no throw-away or filler tracks to be found), the first seven being brand new songs and the other six being re-recordings of songs from past Dalriada/Echo of Dalriada releases. The six re-recorded songs include the three songs that made up the original Echo of Dalriada demo, A Walesi Bárdok, plus three songs whose original versions appeared on Fergeteg, Jégbontó, and Kikelet, respectively. The seven new songs make up a little more than 40 minutes of the album, while the remainder of the 75 total minutes of Arany-Album are the re-recordings.

It hasn't been very long since the 2008 release of Szelek, and the band still sounds much the same (a unique form of folk-infused power/gothic metal with female and male vocals, and a few elements of extreme metal thrown into the mix), with some changes and additions to the personnel. Bassist György Varga and keyboard player András Kurz (the latter of whom was relied on very heavily for the folk parts on the previous album) are gone. In their place are István Molnár and Barnabás Ungár, respectively. I'm not sure if it's the result of having a new keyboard player, but the synths are not as prominent on this album as they were on Szelek, where they mimicked instruments such as the accordion. On the seven new tracks the band is joined by some guest musicians, including a flute player and a few strings players. Violin, viola, double bass, some form of lute, and perhaps other instruments for which I could not find English translations are used on the album. These instruments appear prominently in the new tracks, and greatly enhance the songs on which they appear. However, the band apparently made the decision not to use these instruments on the six re-recorded tracks (except for a short part on the last track), so those are mostly unchanged from the earlier versions, other than improved recording quality, some changes in vocals, and some different keyboard arrangements. Speaking of vocals, drummer Tadeusz Rieckmann contributed low, death metal-like growls at various parts, while guitarist/vocalist András Ficzek handles the higher-pitched shrieks along with his normal sung vocals. Oh, and vocalist Laura Binder plays flute again on this album, something she used to do but hasn't done (at least in a recording) since Jégbontó.

All right, now that that's out of the way, how are the new tracks? Quite excellent! The album begins in strong form with "Zách Klára," a song that will likely be considered a Dalriada classic. This song is pretty epic, with a lot of mood and tempo changes. It's mostly a pretty upbeat song, with great vocals from András, Laura, and Tadeusz, some fast folky parts, and even a wicked keyboard solo. The band doesn't really capitalize on that momentum, however, and slow things down after that. Most of the album is kept at a medium pace, and the band confidently strides through the new material, showing their strong instrumental and songwriting abilities while keeping things tasteful. The album is strongly melodic, and the melodies are unlike what you'll normally hear in any sort of metal. They seem to be strongly influenced by Hungarian folk music. If you're getting tired of hearing the same types of melodies from folk metal bands, you might find Dalriada to be refreshing. Another standout track on the album is "Szent László (2. rész)," which has irresistible vocal harmonizing and some nice violin parts.

I must mention that the vocals are an area where this band has notably improved over the years. András has learned to lean on the strengths of his range rather than strain his voice to reach a lot of high notes, and his vocal lines weave wonderfully within the vocal lines of Laura Binder, whose voice only grows more enchanting with every Dalriada release. Sometimes they harmonize, sometimes they'll sing back and forth (like a conversation), while other times they'll be singing entirely different things at the same time, yet it all goes together well.

There's a noticeable shift that takes place between the new tracks and the re-recorded tracks. The band has made a lot of progressions in their songwriting over the years, but they don't bother to change the older songs much, so even if you're not familiar with the original recordings you may notice the change in the middle of Arany-Album. The biggest improvements, particularly in the songs from A Walesi Bárdok and Fergeteg, are in the production and the performances themselves. The band has come a long way since their demo days, and I must admit that it's very nice to hear these songs re-recorded. It makes me wonder what the rest of Fergeteg would sound like re-recorded. The changes are less noticeable on the two chapters that make up "Szondi Két Apródja," as the originals still stand up quite well. The second chapter's prominent (and strangely futuristic sounding) synth part has been done away with on the re-recording, which was impossible for me to not notice.

Dalriada has paid a worthy metal tribute to a great poet with Arany-Album. One can hardly imagine that Arany would not be pleased with and honored by what the band has done here, metal fan or not. Hungary may not have much in the way of bands in this genre, but they have a reason to be proud with Dalriada carrying the banner for Hungarian folk metal. With the Arany-Album, they've added to their impressive discography and have crafted an album that can stand alongside the very best the genre has to offer. Authentic, sincere, musically adept and with great songwriting skills; what more can one ask for?

Not surprisingly, I highly recommend this one.