You just hit the nail on the head absolutely perfectly.

I apologize for what I said.

If you want to listen to Graveland, start with Thousand Swords or Following the Voice of Blood, for a rawer more traditional sound, or if you are looking for something more Pagan/Heathen stuff, I'd suggest Creed of Iron, which is the first album to go further into that field.

Gave the Thoth sample a listen on the Elegy website, wasn't really that into it. Didn't like the vocals that much and the music seemed a bit pedestrian but not completely lacking in atmosphere.

One of my favourite black metal albums is 'Carpathian Wolves' possibly second only to Bathory's 'Under the Sign...'

I also very much enjoy 'In the Glare...' and 'Celtic Winter' along with the Darken incarnation of Infernum.

Heh, yeah, the hyperbole in the final paragraph is a bit much even for me, but we all have at least one album we completely fellate. I'm trying to recall what your perfect bm album is, "Under the Sign of Hell"?

Back on topic, the guy asking for a good starting point, depends on what you're looking for, since Graveland has gone through about four style changes.

"In the Glare of Burning Churches" is one half furious, Bathory-inspired church-burning black metal and one half gloomy Burzumic dirges.

"Carpathian Wolves" is a fantastically morbid black metal release that already contains a hint of the later turn to folk riffing.

"Thousand Swords" has already been mentioned and is probably Graveland's most important album for the genuine folk-motifs in the black metal riffs and the paganistic percussive drumming.

"Following the Voice of Blood" takes that aesthetic even further, with reed-thin, almost clean sounding guitars playing stuff straight out of traditional European folk-music. It doesn't really work all the time, but when it does, it's pretty awesome.

"Raiders of Revenge" and "Creed of Iron" is the start of Graveland's more cinematic soundtrack phase, where he's lost about as many fans as he gained. "Raiders of Revenge" is the more powerful one, but "Creed of Iron" is easier to acquire, since that wasn't on a split with RAC band Honor. This period is probably the easiest to get into for the more casual black metal listener.

"Fire of Awakening"is the transitionary album into the current style, where he on the one hand continues with the more soundtrackish bombastic atmosphere for the keys and rythm-section and on the other hand goes back to earlier albums like "Thousand Swords" for the lead guitar riffs. It's still rather easily digestible, while also having some of the earlier Graveland bite back to it, so this is a very nice album to try Graveland out with.

"Fire Chariot of Destruction" and "Will Stronger than Death" are both some of the most ferocious stuff Graveland has done in years, while maintaining the huge sound of later Graveland, with Fire Chariot being more harsh and riff-based, and Will having a larger, more epic wall-of-sound going for it.

This. I really don't like any Graveland after and including Following the Voice of Blood. CW is a fucking classic record though.

Your post has some really good information. One should not overlook "Immortal Pride" or "Memory And Destiny," though. I feel like "Immortal Pride" was a huge improvement and evolution over "Following the Voice of Blood" (which I don't care for at all), and "Memory and Destiny" is perhaps the most refined and exciting of his early epic period.

I hope we get the solid whacking war-drums again, like we did on "Will Stronger than Death". I have to say that I really lost touch with Graveland after "Immortal Pride"; all subsequent material I heard was extremely boring and plodding and monotonous to my ears, but suddenly around the time of "Fire Chariot of Destruction" I found myself getting interested in this project again. That album was quite good, but "Will Stronger than Death" is actually great, stirring, huge .. real battle metal, I'd say, almost reminding me of Aeternus during their classic era. And hey, I don't even miss Capricornus on drums now that he's really started putting a lot of work into the percussion.

Yeah, "Will Stronger Than Death" is a fantastic release. My only problem with it is that the production isn't as strong as the previous few albums.

Hail,

Long time Graveland fan here. Personally I think Thousand Swords, Fire Chariot and Will Stronger Than Death are easily the best albums though all releases have captured moments that really shine.

The production on Will Stronger Than Death is highly reverbed to the point where each tremolo pick of the lead guitars can no longer be heard and it is just a constant flow of sound. It really works well and the new samples with the same idea of production sound promising. Actually I think I prefer the production on "Blood Faithful To Soil" a little more as it is easier to hear the rhythm.

It also sounds as though the power chords have been ditched for more precise single chord strumming in harmony with the leads, which really can only advance the musicians song writing skills though could also push back the atmosphere quality of the music. But if this is the case with Will Stronger Than Death the added reverb can bring back the atmosphere as well as recording multiple takes of rhythm and layering them in the mix.

Actually after spending a week examining the two bands I would say that Darken has been taking a few pages from the earlier works of Amon Amarth in some parts.

I don't think Darken is using a real choir at all. I believe it is from East West Quantum Leaps symphonic choir. I work with the same program and have found quite a few similarities. Even with the ability to sing like Darken has stated recently (well almost a year ago now) that he will be using on upcoming releases. It is quite an intense program and if he really does plan to use it it could definitely be what has been setting back the release of Spears of Heaven (he started recording it October last year). It has a steep learning curve and requires a lot of precise work within "word programming".

I wonder if Darken will ever do those high-pitched howls again like he did on "Dawn of Iron Blades" (and again at the beginning of one of the "Fire Chariot Of Destruction" tracks)? They're very odd but kind of cool.

Agreed, the drumming is amazing, it actually sounds like a battle is going on. That sort of rolling thing, it's stunning. Both Capricornus and Rob's drumming is fantastic, but Will Stronger Than Death has to be the metal album that, as far as I've heard, really takes drumming and turns it into a tool to create atmosphere.

I've only bought and heard two albums, which are Following the Voice of Blood and Will Stronger Than Death. They don't get much rotation but I really do love both of them. Will Stronger Than Death has some pretty extreme repetition going on at times yet pulls it off with style. Certainly one of the few albums that has a stronger second half than the first half. Following I'm less partial to, but it's still solid and there's some really, really nice parts on the album. Thurisaz is a brilliant song.

I have actually corresponded with Rob Darken once and he appears to have distanced himself little bit from alot of the NS nonesense. He still remains THE leading musician of the black metal scene in Eastern Europe. His pagan/viking outputs are pretty damn good. I am still trying to get a hold of Dawn of Iron Blades and I am a fan of Carpathian Wolves. I enjoy this band so much more than Nokturnal Mortem(a band I detest). The fact that he is signed to No Colours Records also got my attention since some of my favorite albums have been on that label.

Rob Darken is a one man project for Lord Wind that is something similar to his Graveland. I just traded a couple of .45s for Heralds of Fight and I have to say that it was well worth it. Some of the songs are pretty epic and run longer than five minutes. Highlight tracks include Gift of Gods and Without Mercy and Forgiveness. It might seem like Darken is double dipping with this band since it is on the same label as Graveland but I appreciate his vision to spread it out to the slightly more progressive.

Agreed about Lord Wind.

The first album of Lord Wind is very medieval inspired while the following albums (up till the newest) are a little repetitive. Which wouldn't be a problem if they weren't so long. I have a few albums of medieval music and they really follow the same melodies but track lengths are usually (actually almost all albums I have) about 2-3 minutes long. But when they are stretched to 7-8 minutes they aren't nearly as entertaining. But they really help set the mood if you spin a CD/record and just do your daily activities around the house.

The newest Lord Wind album is very good. Great production and some really nice melodies and choir work.

(along with new Graveland) The new Lord Wind samples on the Graveland website sound very promising. If that same direction is kept as to what had been posted on the website and Graveland Myspace.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to say the Fire Chariot of Destruction is one of my favorite albums ever. That is all.

I hate to momentarily derail this thread but would you consider a price to sell me it? I have heard it doesn't exist in the wild anymore. PM me if interested.

Jesus, really?! I don't know man, I feel the same way but with 'In the Glare of Burning Churches.' That album is a fucking vicious, hidious black metal album. It is one album that best represents the genre. But 'Thousand Swords'? An okay album, but I wouldn't say the best black metal album ever. Eh, to each his own I guess.

I've always thought that the drums on the new Graveland albums is a drum machine.

They are I believe. I don't think Graveland has had a real drummer since Capricornus buggered off. What made you think otherwise?

I love his music but someone should tell Darken to lighten up.

Well Darken is the only member, so if anyone did drumming it was probably him. If those were real drums, then Darken must have gotten fucking good at drumming in the past ten or so years. If they were programmed, he still did a very good job. Can't wait for the new album, WSTD is still as incredible today as the first day I heard it.

It's funny, I've seen quite a few people who thought WSTD was really great. I've never been able to get into it quite as much as, say, Immortal Pride, which I think is probably Darken's best album. It's still a great album and I absolutely love a couple of the songs on there, I just don't think it had as many really standout moments as some of his other work. Having said that, I'm so pumped for his new releases, the samples sound fantastic.

And does anyone know if there's a new Lord Wind album coming out? I can't remember. Maybe I imagined it.

Graveland are a band i know of and have listened to bits of but never a hole album anyone got a good album i should get by Graveland as i really want to listen to more.

In my opinion The Celtic Winter is the best Graveland album.

excellent band! definitely enjoy listening.

I for one am very glad Darken's got some ferocity to inject into the compositions again. I'm definitely not a fan of "Creed of Iron" or the several albums that followed it, but the increased pace and violence of the last two have actually got me to a level of excitement about this band that I haven't felt since I first discovered them after "Following the Voice of Blood" came out.

anyone listened to Drunemeton or Impaler's Wolves if so any good?

Well Impaler's Wolves is just two songs from Carpathian Wolves re-recorded I do believe, though it's been so long since I listened to it that I could be wrong. Drunemeton is pretty good. Pretty harsh black metal.

Looks like i will get Drunemeton found it for £5 as well (:

You're not wrong, but the songs are barely recognisable. It's a pretty cool release I think ... lots of atmosphere-building sound effects and a really tenebrous feeling to these interpretations. Of course in some ways it doesn't compare to what can be found on the "Carpathian Wolves" album, but I don't really think it's supposed to.

"Drunemeton" is extremely raw and simple black metal with a drum machine and some huge synths, intros with monk chants and other sound effects. The guitar is pretty down in the mix, so it's hard to hear the riffs. It's very dark and occult sounding stuff but the sound quality is atrocious, so if you're not used to "demo sounds", just leave it be. The CD re-release by Forever Plagued is fucked up in the sense that the CD shows 15 tracks but only 12 have been printed on the back cover with fucked up track numbers: 1,2,4,5,6,8,9,10,12,13,14 and 15.

Yeah, the production makes it really hard to get into, as the riffs are barely even audible a lot of the time. But if you can get past that, it's pretty cool first-wave inspired black metal with a lot of mystical, ritualistic synth-work.

I found Impaler's Wolves for about $10, and I think it's a really nifty little release. It reflects the change of Graveland to the slower, more atmospheric style by reinterpreting two old songs from the Carpathian Wolves album. As much as I like the music on that album, I've never been able to completely get past the production, which IW definitely fixes. Definitely worth hearing.

What is it about the production the turns you off? Carpathian Wolves was the first Graveland album I heard and I've always really enjoyed it. I think the production, especially on Barbarism Returns, is really great; that song is just so evil.

Well, there's a riff on The Celtic Winter that sounds a lot, a lot like a riff from Emperor's "Night of the Graveless Souls," which predates Darken's song.

I'm not starting anything negative with this. The Celtic Winter is a personal favorite of mine.

I concur. It cleans up the rough edges from the excellent Carpathian Wolves, and has this epic, hypnotic feel that is unmatched. Thousand Swords had a more interesting and original aesthetic, but I feel that it drones on a bit too much for my liking without enough distinction. Later stuff I haven't been able to get into.

Let's hope he's named after the more respectable Eucharist album, and not the shitty black metal band.

I haven't listened to Graveland in a few years now, though oddly I recc'd Thousand Swords to somebody the other day. I'm thinking I may have to break out the Graveland again.

Does anybody have any news on Capricornus? The last I heard, he was in hiding, however that's just rumour as to why he disappeared.



I thought him more the new Noktorn, to be honest.

Lol what a fail.