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Post by Mighty Croc on Oct 14, 2010 15:57:04 GMT 2
Part 1. InTrue
OK, I've started this epic thread. Excuse me for my poor English and simple language. Let's go.
Here I'll be talking about the heathen scene of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Surely, first I'll introduce myself. Name's Phil, I live in St. Petersburg. You can contact me through this forum, you can repost all the stuff anywhere, just don't forget to mention the source. I've used lots of sources, like metal archives and so on, but the only one Id mention here is Casus Belli Zine [http://www.casusbellizine.com] - because I don't listen to tons of heathen metal now as I used to a few years ago, I had to take a lot of information from there. Feel free to contact me, if you want me to translate any interviews or reviews, or to upload any albums for you. But don't forget - if you can buy albums, but you don't, you are gay! And one more thing, if anybody will see that I've said something unfair - remember, it's just my opinion, and I'm not a musician or any other significant scene guy.
Now some theory, about the Slavic heathenism. Unfortunately, we don't have our own Edda, Torah or Popol Vuh, and there is not very much written evidence about the times before christ-insanity invaded the Slavic lands - actually, most of the sources are monks' writings about how bad all the Heathen stuff is and how good is christianity. There is no united panteon of Heathen gods, as the Scandinavians have - the actual pagan rites varied in every region. The last attempt was made by Kiev's knjaz [this word is the same as scandinavian "konung"] vladimir - first he tried to make an united panteon of gods from all over Russia, and then, some years later, he converted Russia to christianity, to make friends with the Byzantine empire. There were some attempts to write the bible of the Slavic Heathens, the most famous one is "Kniga Velesa", which means "The Book of Veles". All the serious historians claim this is a fake. There are lots of neoheathen sects, and hordes of pettifoggers have infested this huge topic with their crap - a few examples: one guy says that he has some golden plates [like in the book of mormons] on which all the heathen wisdom is written, lots of guys make some incredible effots of the Russian language and then say that Russians were the very first nation on the Earth, all other languages have been evolved from Russian and even that the Egyptian pyramids are built by Russians, we have a guy who says that he sees writings in Russian on random things, like Sun, Moon, and so on. Searching for the truth in this swamp is like trying to find pearls in shit, and there are only few people who are Heathen and make serious works in Slavic mythology.
Why am I writing about all this boring stuff, and how the damn is it connected with the metal scene? The answer is simple. We can take all the metal music in Russia that deals with Slavic Heathenism and divide it into two parts, I'll call it "mainstream" and "underground". The mainstream scene is quite popular, it's published on major labels, it has lots of fans, but nearly all mainstream bands deal with neo-heathenism, mostly with the Book of Veles topics, so most of mainstream scene fans are neopagans. Of course, every scene has its own wiggers or closet rockers, and this is just to step on the way to become true, hehe - so, of course, I used to be a neo-heathen too. The most famous mainstream band is, of course, Arkona from Moscow. The scene bands are good to listen, if you don't understand Russian - usually those bands create qualitative music, but the lyrics... ok, nevermind. The underground scene is... well, it's underground, and you know what it means. Smaller labels and marginality. It may vary musically, but I have to spot two important moments. First - most of the underground bands have a high black metal influence, so if you don't like or don't listen to this music of hatred - avoid. Second, and surely even more important thing - many of the underground bands support some general principles of NS ideology, so if there's no place for the word "race" in your little world, you better don't. Because I've divided this work on some parts, i will put the ones, where the NS topic is going to take place, under spoilers. The two scenes rarely contact with each other, and usually fans listen only to mainstream, or only to underground things, that's why you can see, for example, an underground folk metal band Oprich playing before the Nowrwegian black metal band Taake. OK, now I think you know enough, so fasten your belts!
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Post by Mighty Croc on Oct 14, 2010 15:57:33 GMT 2
Part II. The Titans. As we know, the Pagan metal wave rushed in the second half of the 90s. Russia, Belarus and Ukraine were not the exceptions. Some serious people say that there were bands who used folk themes even before the time from when I'm going to start - I don't argue with them, maybe if anyone will tell me about them, I'll add them here. If I ask you to tell me some folk/pagan metal bands from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, I expect most to hear one of two answers - "errrr... What?" and "I know, I know! ARKONA!!!" [if else, why the hell are you reading this?]. But strange - speaking about the Titans [OK, I'll tell - there will be two Titans], I do not mean Arkona, its place is the next part. The Titans were the first bands to become worldwide famous in the second half of the 90s, not only the first heathen metal bands, but first metal bands from these areas at all. They're even not from Russia, their names are - Gods Tower from Belarus and Nokturnal Mortum from Ukraine. Gods Tower... Damn, these guys were unique. Their style was some kind of a traditional doom metal, with its slow and epic songs, but the band differed from the others with its truly Heathen lyrics and the solo guitar parts. Yeah, no flutes or anything, all the folkish tunes were performed on the guitar [this trick later has been copied, for example, by Alkonost and Amber Tears]. The band has recorded three demotapes in the 93-95 period, and this is the base of all their discography - both full-length albums are just re-recorded demotapes, with some additional tracks. Gods Tower were the mightiest band in Belarus, nearly every metalhead there has heard them, and everyone has heard the rumours about how much the band drinked during their tours... but in 2001 the band split up, and then their unique guitarist Alexander Urakoff died in 2003, so all hopes to see the band live again and to hear the legendary album "Steel Says Last", which was going to be recorded, were abandoned. However, now their voiceman Lesley Knife has gathered the band again, and Urakoff's student will be their guitarist, and a few days ago there should be their first gig after the reunion. We'll see... www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ4lUjhoUWg - Twilight Sun www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvWVB5XWDNQ - Seven Rains of Fire www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PB_N-CBdrw - Rising Arrows www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEaAQAbslYw - An Eye for an Eye www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIMChUlmfLA - The Eerie The second ones are Nokturnal Mortum, from Ukraine. Kharkiv's black-influenced heathen metal scene is actually huge, and one of the parts will be dedicated to it, and Nokturnal Mortum are the biggest figure there. They stand at the very border of underground - usually people become introduced to the Heathen metal underground scene with one of the Mortum's albums. They started with death metal, under the name Suppuration, but very soon split-up after that, and soon reformed as Nokturnal Mortum, while having the genre direction changed Lots of the guys in the underground don't take Knjaz Varggoth, the mastermind of the band, seriously, due to lots of his statements - especially in the black metal scene, as the band became popular in 1997-1998, when the most popular genre in metal music surely was sympho black - and Varggoth claimed that Mortum is pure black metal and urged his fans to burn churches; all those statements comparing to band's stuff [then it was very influenced with black metal, and contained a lot of merry folk melodies]. However, Nokturnal Mortum were caught in sight of a guy from american The End Records, who is Russian and tried to promote some Russian bands. Nokturnal Mortum used to be a member of the Pagan Front, an organisation that promotes NS metal, but, as I've heard, they were kicked out later. Now Mortum has their own label called Oriana. I'd also mention the Kolovorot fest, which is held every year in Kharkiv, where Nokturnal Mortum play every year as headliners, with support of some Heathen metal and RAC bands. Here are all the albums of the band with my comments [as they vary a lot, start listening from the last two ones!]: 1995 - Twilightfall [first recorded in 1994] - the most doomy and atmospheric album www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcX9kTJ19Ow - Cry of Ukraina www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yvj1bdW2D4 - Autumn Opposition 1996 - Lunar Poetry. IMO the best album of the 90s, with a good balance of merry melodies and extreme metal. www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6YuV81wPyU - Perun's Celestial Silver www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A5FGGYjQYI - Carpathian Mysteries 1997 - Goat Horns. Too many merry melodies, ddammit, and the production if far from perfect. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFAj8XIoT_Q - Goat Horns www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEaVNh70nmo - Kolyada 1998 - To the Gates of Blasphemous Fire. An untypical album for the band - an attempt to play more "true" metal, some people even say it's Emperor worship. Not the best one. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYF_x-SZsY - On the Moonlight Path www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3f3FIhJqtI - Cheremosh 1999 - Nechrist. The most radical album by the band, both in musick and texts. A few years ago I used to convert girls to the dark side of the Force - they were very shocked by the lyrics, as they are a little blasphemic, hehe... www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAagAga-5sI - The Call of Aryan Spirit www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf_qhufkxk8 - Black Raven 2005 - Weltanschauung. Since this album, the band started to play some truly interesting stuff - the songs became really epic, with lots of interesting details, and to polish their albums for years. But it was worth waiting. When I heard this album for the first time, I was stunned, seriously. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUJZHQz3In8 - Weltanschauung www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBD3lW81dS8 - Hailed be the Heroes www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1FrTE9C4bw - The Taste of Victory 2009 - The Voice of Steel. A perfect album, the best by the band. They've added bluesy sounding guitar solos to the songs. Highly recommended. www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Bm_cNkt1g - The Voice of Steel www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld-q02l5pqE - Valkyrie www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ZzqWhvOVA - Ukraine
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Post by Mighty Croc on Oct 14, 2010 15:57:54 GMT 2
Part III. The mainstream scene. The wave of mainstream heathen metal came to Russia only in 00's, when Finntroll and Ensiferum were already popular. The scene is mostly not bad in the musical way, but in the lyrical... ah, anyway you can't understand it, can you? OK, some history now. The first attempt to create some mainstream heathen metal was made by a band from Moscow, called Mor. They were also one of the first ones in Russia who raised their heads when the sympho-black horde has conquered the throne of Metal. Of course, there were the other ones who started to play BM-influenced metal, but this Mor [because we have an another band called Mor, they're from Murmansk, I'll tell you later about them] were the first in Russia who had lyrics that dealt with Paganism, and were mainstream. Mor tried to sit on two chairs in a moment, writing both Satanist and Heathen lyrics, but, of course, finally they've sat on the floor between the both chairs - so lots of metalheads didn't take the band seriously. But guys who just started listening to extreme metal praised the band as Russian BM. Now the band is remembered only by the oldies, that's why I can't present you the youtube links - I have no idea how to record those musical videos. There were also another mainstream bands, which tried to mix musick highly influenced by Black Metal with Heathenism, but we'll talk about them later, I think, in part V. The history has been told, so now - let's move to the bands. And who, do you think, will be mentioned the first? Yeas, of course, it's your favourite Arkona. SO what do you want to tell me? Yeah, Arkona plays some merry folk metal, and Masha has a quite interesting voice. Arkona first started as an own band of one of the lots neopagan communities of Russia, and they even made a gig on a pagan metal fest in 2003, but then they decided to disband. Later Masha asked her friends from Rossomahaar [an extreme metal band from Moscow, they even had some popularity in Europe, spicially in Germany] to help her with the recording, and so all the line-up of Rossomahaar are constant members of Arkona, which has became their prior band. Arkona became really popular with their third album, 2005's "Vo Slavu Velikim!". Now it's signed on a major label called Napalm Records, so you all now are able to buy their CDs, hehe. According to their website, the songs for the new album are finished, they only have to sit and record it. Now - youtube links time! From 2009 - Goi, Rode, Goi! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl13dNSIwAw - Yarilo [ehehe, I have my own memories that are related to this song - when our metalheads' gang is deadly drunk, we all rise and start to dance and mosh on this song - some kind of our parody on Arkona's gig, dammit! we call it "hey guys, I can't stand straight, time for Yarilo RoundBoozeDance!" ok, back to the links!] www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg4BzpDv1K4 - Arkona www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxh6dFkYe-U - Goi, Rode, Goi! From 2007 - Ot Serdtsa K Nebu www.youtube.com/watch?v=RznqOgPgx-0 - Strela www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw7_uJQuMck - Ot Serdtsa K Nebu www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH2QqPKq5z0 - Sva From 2005 - Vo Slavu Velikim! www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7R9lL405nQ - Po Syroi Zemle www.youtube.com/watch?v=zntw2WkD_zA - Zov Bitvy www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Yfgv5G6F0 - Gnev Vremen From 2004 - Lepta www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvJsFkNOeRo - Marena www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5aAYytKtNs - Sotkany Veka www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yH__wNCdg4 - Lepta o Gneve From 2004 - Vozrozhdenie www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOn8V4muDYY - Maslenitsa www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSRSikWuxXY - Rus www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaapJN8VKwc - K Domu Svaroga Thanx for the attention, now we leave Arkona from Moscow. Next stop is Alkonost from Naberezhnye Chelny, a city which is in the Tatar Republic. Alkonost stands severally from the other bands, as they do not name the Gods, but try to show us the later times, the times of struggle between christinsanity and heathenism. They use operatic female vocals [if you don't like those, you'd better don't try to listen], and one more important thing about their music is that they use guitars instead of keyboards to perform the folkish tunes, and the keys are been used only to create the atmospheric background. Their "trueness" is, of course, disputed [for example, a girl behind the keys is a muslim], but usually guys like me [who always moan about how silly our mainstream scene is] avoid this band, because their music is at least interesting, and their lyrics is also not bad. And, of course, the gigs. The band is the most influential in Chelny, and they give maybe the best gigs from all the Russian folk bands I've ever seen; but they like to reissue and re-record their earlier works, so that's why the videos are not linked to albums [and I don't know, why, but most of the videos on youtube are live, or older versions]. Here are the videos: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz6N3iVQNnc - Years of Prophecy [old version, without female voice] www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaCNnlshbtU - The Night Before the Battle [short version] www.youtube.com/watch?v=04HSH97a8KA - Eviltimes www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Brkl3yIfk - Brotherhood of Steel www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyXm3djQolM - Bird-Ship www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePuZ0OSPYqc - The Abyss [live] www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqhhFEnKZMM - Voice of the Woods [live] Ok, Who's next? I thought a lot, and I've chosen Pagan Reign from Tver. This band's used to be famous for their unbelieavable simple lyrics, so if a band has simple lyrics, we usually say "ah, anyway it's not Pagan Reign". The musick was inspired by, I guess, melodic death metal or even some black metal, and that even can be called a phenomenon, because when Pagan Reign made their first album, "Ancient Warriors" - in 2001, the new wave of pagan/viking metal was only going to start. Unfortunately, they disbanded before gaining any serious popularity - in 2006-07 it was one of the major pagan metal bands from Russia, but then all the guys except Orey, the band's mastermind, have quit and started the new band called Tverd. Tverd have changed the musical direction: they started to use female voice and lyrics of underground poets, so their only album "Following the Sun's Way" is one of the best efforts in Russian mainstream heathen metal. Pagan Reign: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfMeBRGfq8U - Rarog [The Falcon] www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG_yt9CKFNI - In the Times of Epic Stories www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3aVThwz_8Q - Radegast www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TZcTF0Lt80 - In Winter Embraces www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2tSiNIhfJM - Immortal Tribe www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOS1oyIW2Bs - The Sign of Perun Tverd: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI3i0apdMA4 - The Wolf and the Gyrfalcon www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUDu2Shtp6U - Wide Maslenitsa www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY1_wkpiMDo - The Spring Next ones I'll tell you about will be a band from my little hometown St. Petersburg, the band called Severnye Vrata [means Northern Gates]. This band stands apart of the main scene , it was formed in 1997, and the style... the style was some kind of epic viking metal, maybe like a softened version of Mithotyn, with some clean vocals. My opinion - there's a lot of work for them to improve the lyrics, and in fact the music is not so catchy as it could be... but anyway, they're a big band now in Petersburg.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l52PPtdPpUA - Chernorod www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-pWeavZnBg - Native Shores www.youtube.com/watch?v=c64Ggquo_5c - Black Raven www.youtube.com/watch?v=S24OHIOyGQ8 - Ugrium the River
One more band from the Russian mainstream scene is Svarga from the town near Moscow, called Zhukovsky [don't confuse them with one more Svarga from Russia, which has changed their name to Veretragor, and with Svarga from Ukraine]. This band was formed in 1997 [they state that their musical style was pagan/doom then], and even has recorded a demo in 2000, but it became well-known only in 2005, when their first album has been released. I think that Svarga became popular because of their friends from Arkona - they played a lot of shows together, and Masha from Arkona did some guest vocals for Svarga. The music is also not too interesting, but I should state that everyone who likes metal with accordion should check them out. And yeah, Svarga has an "acoustic third album" syndrome, like Finntroll and Eluveitie do - Svarga's third album is acoustic rock.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bePFRff317E - Burn www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1nuYFLwsek - Fool www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBE8gLYobYI - War www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvmHxfZbxWg - Skies www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtIYFGKgiAs - Wolfish Song
And the last Russian band I'll tell about today is Rarog from Moscow. This is maybe the least popular project from that Moscow inner circle, they've recorded only one album. The lyrics is based on the book called "Star Book of Kolyada", which is even less close to to the original beliefs than the "Book of Veles", so it can be called "fantasy pagan metal". There are five songs on that album, and the music is highly inspired by Death and Doom metal. Also, the mastermind of the band, Shmel, has a great low voice, so he contributed the backing vocals for some bands, Alkonost for example. The band states that soon they will release the second album.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnxga5p0LqM - Skiper the Beast www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZAYDOlkLow - Kolyada
Now we leave Russia and move to Ukraine. Ukraine, unfortunately, doesn't have a lot of bands that can be called "mainstream" - there are just a few bands who are not inspired by extreme metal. I'll tell you only about two now - first is Natural Spirit from Chernigiv. They formed the band... guess, what year was that? Right! 1997! When they started to play, their stuff was, I don't know, they call it "sympho black metal", but I am a big fan of black metal, and I can state that it was some very funny music, but not BM, nooo! The first album was released in 1999 on tape, I haven't heard it, but I've heard the 2004 album, where most of the songs were re-recorded. In fact, I laughed a lot from that album. So why am I telling about them? Because they've changed their line-up, and now they've made one more album, which can be taken seriously. So, try it, why not?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRgAXeJffUo - Kupala www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQedvALBt_c - Lullaby [live] www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uVlx-D3CJ4 - Sita Rosa [live] and a few older ones: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpdKgoIVomU - Vladimir [an official video from the funny times] www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwyMQg0gqzY - The Dark Lord [yeah, that should be black metal]
And the last band for today is the band from Ukraine, called Tin' Sontsya [this is how they're spelled on the metal archives - can you say it, heh?], which means The Shadow of the Sun. These guys play a good-quality folk/power metal, with clean voices. They call it "cossack metal". Unfortunately, the band is popular only in Ukraine - not a lot of heathen metal fans from Russia and the world know about them.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAahax8oHDQ - My Moon www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsrZ4TUhGG8 - Chugaister's Song [live; actually a cover of Gods Tower's Twilight Sun] www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8MJa01018Y - Cossack Grave
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Post by noncho on Oct 14, 2010 16:18:13 GMT 2
Really good information about bands from russian speaking countries, I will try this bands(I know only Arkona for now). I was in Odessa, Ukraine two weeks ago, but I have no enough time for searching local bands. Thanks for sharing!
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Post by Mighty Croc on Oct 14, 2010 16:20:40 GMT 2
You are welcome. I'll add more information later, about more bands of course. Thanks for the interest!
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Post by Bartbär on Oct 14, 2010 17:02:12 GMT 2
Ahhh, Croc, this thread has made my day! And I'm so happy to have you back posting frequently again! Sadly I'm nearly late for school so I was only able to read part I, but will continue once I return. Thanks for sharing and posting!!! I'm looking forward to this thread!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2010 17:44:53 GMT 2
Looks very well, it gives us a broad view on the scene there. Spasiba, soviet Croc! I am sure you put a lot of your time in gathering all of this.
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Post by wolferin on Oct 14, 2010 18:58:05 GMT 2
A great thread! I'm interested of Russian folk-metal, understand the language and I listen no a number of groups. Here I'm sure to find new groups and tendencies. Thank you, Croc, for the effort of posting so detailed information!
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Post by Mighty Croc on Oct 14, 2010 19:20:55 GMT 2
Hell yeah, I'm glad that you all like the stuff. There's a lot for me to tell, though...
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Post by kuusuru on Oct 14, 2010 22:22:04 GMT 2
BEST. THREAD. EVER.
Will take some time to digest it in full, but digest I will. Exaltations be thine!
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Post by Bartbär on Oct 14, 2010 23:10:13 GMT 2
Now for a proper long-winded reply! Perhaps that is a good thing in terms of Slavonic Heathenism. The fact that the Norse DO have surviving texts such as the Eddas and the like means that people follow these texts as if they are the heathen version of the bible. Yet general people, especially those who are looking for aspects of religion or faith, are not ones to look at these books historically or critically. They don't recognize the faults and problems that these books can obtain (for instance the fact that Snorri is the author of not only the Eddas but Heimskringla, or the Lives of the Norse Kings, and not only was he naturally Christian given the time they were written but just like any historical scholar his works contained various problematics). Of course that doesn't mean these books are not absolutely necessary in trying to find out more about heathenism. But I think people make too broad of a brushstroke when they are trying to "reconstruct" heathenism. Heathenism has ALWAYS been adaptive: Tyr was the most revered and worshiped God when Germanic tribes were more agrarian, needing fertility of soil in order to survive. But when the shift changed from a more sedentary agrarian lifestyle to the rise of the "Gefolgschaft" or "warrior bands" Odin becamse the God of choice. Just one of countless examples to show how adaptive these beliefs were, and how nothing was set in stone but instead based on circumstance. Thus today we perhaps shouldn't have Odin as still the most revered God of the Germanic pantheon, although he's so adaptable and illusive that he works for many situations. We are stuck in an historical rut, where we truly have no idea how these Gods were worshipped or the psyche behind said worship. We can only adapt it for ourselves in our current modern sense, but we'll never be able to recreate it. Thus it disturbs me when anyone tries to "resurrect" something, no matter if there is tons of historical documents or virtually none like in the case of Russian heathenism. But this thread is about music, so maybe I shouldn't have expressed so much on the first stated concept on the religious aspect. Too bad though, it's staying. The list is quite extensive so far, at least it is a very very good beginning towards the basics. I greatly enjoy how you broke up the categories and I'd have to agree with them 100%. I don't think anyone here knows more about Russian metal than you do, but even if they did I'm sure they too would be unable to dispute it. Nokturnal Mortum is perhaps the very first band in this genre that I listened to. I still remember my brother giving me a copy of Lunar Poetry and Goat Horns on tape many years back, along with a treasure trove of other bands, and these albums had such a profound impact on me. Eventually Nokturnal Mortum lead to various other bands in the same vein, and not just in the Heathen "genre" but also in the Doom genre, considering how Doom-sounding Twilightfall was. To me that is still one of my favorite "doom" type albums. I am however glad to see how they continue to mature and grow, and with this latest release they really blew my mind. Perhaps the best album of the year for metal. I've heard of the majority of the other bands you've mentioned, but I haven't heard a few of them, and of the ones I do know not everyone has been given a proper listening. I'm excited to get that underway... Looking forward to what more gems you will post, and I'm one of the few individuals who listens to both sides of metal: the mainstream and the exTREAM. So every new band posted will most likely get two thumbs up and lots of heavy listening!!! If we ever run out of Russian Metal, hopefully we can continue on with regular ol' Russian Folk, although I don't know if we'd EVER run out of Metal. haha @ Kuusuru: agreed!
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Post by swordmaiden on Oct 15, 2010 10:35:23 GMT 2
A great thread indeed. Thanks Croc! I want to check these bands out since they deal with Slavic mythology. Yes, it will certainly take time to digest it all, but it is definately worth it.
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Post by wolferin on Oct 16, 2010 13:37:14 GMT 2
Now I found time to read everything in details and even read some of the notes about bands twice. I know most of the bands, but this well arranged info with sincere personal opinion is great. The only think I can say, e.g. ask - Would you like to broaden your range covering Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, if you are interested of course.
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Post by Mighty Croc on Oct 16, 2010 14:24:37 GMT 2
I could, but I don't know a lot about the bands from the Baltics, unfortunately. Their scene is separated from ours, but maybe I'll overlook them too, that's a great idea. But first I need to get more into their scene. Soon I'm getting a passport for travelling abroad, and one of my friends has a house in Estonia, so I'm sure we'll be going there to visit some gigs. But the Baltics and especially Lithuania had used to have a great scene of pagan metal and pagan ambient in the late 90s.
Of course, I have to mention The Big Trinity from the Baltics first - Metsatoll from Estonia, Skyforger from Latvia and Obtest from Lithuania. They know how to rock. A perfect Heathen musick.
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Post by wolferin on Oct 16, 2010 15:50:20 GMT 2
This "holly trinity" I like, especially Metsatoll and their last albums, which are more melodic and with included more traditional songs. The lyrics, as far as had read explanations are not dull, because they are based on local legends, traditional or inspired from folklore. Going to Korpiklaani concert I was imagining Metsatoll performing instead of sleepy Gondr.universe (sorry I apriciate the effort, but...). Dreams, dreams...
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