One Night In Kiev ....

OK. Well I'm back from Vegas .... Great time! And I am about to embark on my Christmas theme soon. It should have been this week, but what can you do. I will end this run of extreme folk metal with the Christian band Holy Blood from Ukraine. Now the album I'll be talking about now is not quite as folky as I remembered, but I think I confused it with their follow up release which took on a very folk feel. But for now let's discuss their debut "The Wanderer".

"The Wanderer" is rather a brutal death/black metal album with folk stylings, but emphasis on brutal. "The Wanderer" begins with the majestic, Manowar like orchestral opener "Bogatyr Gates In Capital Town In Kiev". We are then blasted with the title track which is a fast black metal tune with fine riffwork and touches of death metal vocals. "The Poor World" is also a blistering black metal song with touches of melody both with vocal lines and guitar solos and sometimes both at once. "In The Lake Of Fire" takes the fast black metal stylings and mixes it up with some heavy chunky riffing along the lines of Einherjer and brings a folky/viking feel.

The folk elements are sprinkled throughout the songs "On Drakkares Of Fate" and "Cold Winds". "Drakkares ..." is a keyboard heavy black metal tune with the keys carrying the folk melody along with some folk like riffwork. "Cold Winds" is a Metallica like thrash song with black/death metal vocals and viking style choruses and folkily melodic soloing. A fine and brutal track.

We also get heavy death metal like songs with "The Warrior" and its thrashy riffing and deathy black vocals and "Kill" a crunchy keyboard heavy song that's dark and aggressive. "Morning" is folk heavy with flute solos and a little blues style soloing and the acoustic number "The Dnieper".

The stand out songs are "Cold Winds" which is wickedly heavy and great guitar work and my favourite "In The Lake Of Fire" which is a fine mix of speedy black metal and heavy riffing. I have to mention the remix of "Kill" at the end of the album (which is good so you can hear the whole album and stop it before this track). This is an ethnic flavoured techno industrial death metal mix ... with a little gothic black metal feel. Ya .... think Nine Inch Nails with a little White Zombie and a touch of Atrocity. Interesting yes, does it work? Debatable.

Overall Holy Blood's "The Wanderer" is a fine album, brutal and aggressive without losing melody and the band only improves with their folk heavy follow up. But that will have to wait ....cause!?! ... yes, this weekend I'll start my run of Christmas theme music. I'll probably only get about 4 reviewed, but I'll be starting with a look at the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert I just attended. For the uninitiated, they've just completed their Christmas trilogy of albums in the fall of 2005 and perform heavy metal style Christmas music. Very powerful albums .... with just a little cheese .... Stay tuned!