| Reviews for Walknut's Graveforests and Their Shadows |
| An atmospheric gem. - 96% |
| Written by TheFecundComing
on June 5th, 2009
|
| Atmospheric black metal is a genre coming up pretty quickly on the horizon. Bands from all over the world strive, and often fail, to conjure up a haunting, bleak, desolate atmosphere with the overabundance of obvious Darkthrone worship, using generic (and often plagiarized) riffs from the aforementioned 90's black metal pioneers. Walknut manage to take the entire genre, and turn it upside down, giving it a brand new twist without running into any clichés. Both members hailing from Russian folk black metal outfit Temnozor, right from the start the listener is made aware that this is not going to be a mediocre listening experience. Stringsskald and Ravnaskrik know exactly what they're doing upon picking up their instruments. The intro, Hrimfaxi, draws the listener in with chilling synths, reminiscent of, wouldn't you know it, Graveforests and their Shadows- much akin to the album's cover. Again, atmosphere is stressed of utmost importance. Regarding the instruments and tone, they are best broken down as such. The guitars which are the basis of the music, have a buzzing, distorted, almost crunchy tone to them. Carrying the rhythm alongside the drums, which are mixed quite lowly save for the chiming bells and crashing cymbals. The bass is fairly inaudible, but can be heard if the listener tries hard enough. It follows the guitar lines, giving the overall tone of the album a solid backing. The vocals are a pleasant surprise. Hearkening to bedroom project Self-Inflicted Violence, the comparison between Walknut and SIV is uncanny. Tortured wails above a daunting wall of distortion... it's near musical bliss in the realm of atmospheric black metal. A song-by-song analysis of this album would be worthless. To point out the highlights in each track would detract from the listening experience. To put it simply, it's impossible to listen to one song from this album and then quit. To be fully appreciated, it must be ingested as a whole. The thick, distorted guitars, the chiming cymbals and bells, the entrancing rhythms immerse themselves around you as you stare off into the sky, pondering your very existence. This music grasps your mind and contorts it, making you wonder, simply, "why?" One of the most interesting aspects of Graveforests and Their Shadows, however, is the drumming. The double bass isn't obnoxious- though prominent, it keeps its place in the distant background, while the majority of the time signatures are noted by the cymbals and bells. They compliment the fuzzed, distorted guitars quite keenly, and you'll catch yourself tapping your feet or nodding your head along with them, until the final rhythm of Skinfaxi fades. When it comes to atmospheric black metal, it doesn't get much better than this. Graveforests and Their Shadows is a must have for any black metal afficionado, or anyone who enjoys hypnotic, mesmerizing, and enthralling music in general. |
| Essential listening for Drudkh/Hate Forest fans - 85% |
| Written by crypticmyth
on August 19th, 2008
|
| I'm a big fan of the naturalistic black metal band. A majority of these bands practice the atmospheric brand of the genre (aka The Burzumic Path) and essentially play hypnotic, unsettling (yet calming in a weird manner), epic and uniquely melodic music. Barring a few, most of these bands use a real drum kit, and don't opt for programmed drums - a sure shot positive in my book. Most importantly, they stray away from the satanic or suicidal/depressive motifs and instead concentrate on nature, paganism, folklore (without straying too much into Folksy territory), the countryside and themes pertaining to that order. In 2004, a relatively unknown band (at that time) from Ukraine, aptly named Drudkh, pretty much cemented their place in the black metal hall of fame with the release of their sophomore effort, Autumn Aurora - a stellar release which proved to be one hell of an album; a gem amongst gems in the genre. Walknut, hailing from Ukraine's biggest brother, subscribe to the same school of thought. Graveforest And Their Shadows is the debut effort of this band composed of former BlazeBirth Hall band members. Comparing them to Drudkh, these guys are at times a much more chaotic band. But the basic idea is the same. Swirling rhythm sequences which sit at the base of your head like the fog does in London, subtle strings and ritualistic, relentless percussion make up the core of the album. The drumming is what makes this an above-average listen. It can easily be seen that a lot of thought has gone into it - lots of variety and not too much such that the repetitiveness is hampered. An epic sense of strange melody prevails throughout, lingering above the harsh surface carved out by the underlying riffs. The production is nothing phenomenal but serves well for such music. In the vocal department we are treated to some high-pitched yelps and cries exuding a 'plastic feel' which act as a slight deterrent - I would've liked them to have been slighlty less spaced out with reverb turned down a few bars. I nitpick though. Hrimfaxi, a short, floating, warm-synth ambient piece introduces us to the first of three behemoth-sized songs, Motherland Ostenvegr. Majestic, crushing and melancholic at the same time, it reveals to us mere signs of things to come. This is followed by the psychedelic, trance-inducing Come, Dreadful Ygg, whose intro betrays a hidden Velvet Cacoon - Genevieve influence (a damn good thing according to me). Eleven minutes of Pagan-atmospheric goodness. The best song on the album is Grim Woods. Clocking in at 11:43, this is one surreal trip, perfectly bringing to life everything Walknut want to convey. There are two other instrumental passages which keep the flow of the album going smoothly. Add another damn good release to the already well-developed Eastern European black metal scene. Stay far away from this if you don't like the Hvis Lyset Tar Oss variety of black metal or if the sounds of Drudkh and Hate Forest do not float your boat. But even if you do take a liking to that odd Burzum song, do your best and dig this up. Even though I'll never know what a Graveforest is, this is some classic black metal. Originally written for http://www.kvltsite.com |
| A promising debut - 88% |
| Written by ShadowSouled
on January 7th, 2008
|
| I avoided this release for as long as I did mostly because the members are affiliated with bands who tend to worship Darkthrone, which at this point in time is rather dated and dull (hopefully I didn't offend too many of you out there). When I finally decided to give this a listen, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear a solid slab of ambient black metal as opposed to lo-fi Darkthrone worship. This is Walknut's very first release, and a powerful one it is. If you combine the harsh elements of Hate Forest with the ambiance of Angantyr or Drudkh and the vocals of Wolves in the Throne Room and mix it together into 6 mid paced songs, you have Walknut. The riffs are repetitive and simple with all the prerequisite - dare I say - grimness and despair that this genre is known for, and manage to conjure up a bleak and hopeless atmosphere that so many depressive black metal bands have tried and failed to create. The drumming is also repetitive and midpaced, although occasionally the band makes use of blasting, more to accentuate a point than to insert unneeded aggression in the music; the best way to describe it is a comparison to the drumming found in Drudkh's albums. The lyrics are all in English, and deal with nature and pagan heritage, and loss of both. The vocals themselves are quite similar to Wolves in the Throne Room's, but with considerably more echo, and more sheer force in my opinion. A comparison to the howling wind, however cliche, is the most accurate. The recording quality is quite clear, which means you don't have to strain to be able to hear every part. If you are expecting a black metal band whose material sounds like the members are stuck sometime in the nineties (back when fisher-price recordings were new and innovative), ignore this album and band and listen to Godless North, which is by the way a very good band in its own right. However, if you appreciated ambient black metal at its finest, find this. I am very much looking forward to the next release by this band. |
| Atmospheric BM that doesn't suck. - 85% |
| Written by Dybrar
on June 5th, 2007
|
| So-called "atmospheric" black metal is something I usually cannot really stand. The reason for this is that a startling number of artists/bands seem to think that stretching out two or three riffs over 30+ minutes while samples of howling wind play in the background constitutes "atmospheric" music. Hint: it doesn't. Or at least, it doesn't make for an interesting listen. Now, some may argue that atmospheric music doesn't necessarily have to be interesting musically. Aside from the fact that this just isn't categorically true, there is also (in my mind) the fine line between atmospheric music and Ambient. I adore the latter, but it's not quite the same; in both cases, there is a balance to be struck between keeping things "interesting" (in the broadest sense of the term) and making the music "ignorable" (ditto). In the case of Ambient, the bias should be towards the latter, and in the case of atmospheric music, towards the former. But I am rambling. What I am getting is that the most grimly named "Graveforests and their Shadows", the 2007 debut of Russian metallers Walknut, is one of these few atmospheric BM releases that actually deliver. It's atmospheric and epic in approach without being pure background music, and yet it's not a complicated listen by any means, either. "Thickening northern darkness, night over the dead haunted woods, autumn fog above the black water, grim folkish superstitions, ghosts of bloodsoaked battlegrounds and ritual places, voices of these old extinct lands, the thundering pulse of our blood and honour, razors cutting the runes upon the flesh" is how the band describe their music on their MySpace, and actually it's a fairly accurate prediction. When listening to this album, you very much do experience a feeling of vast, desolate lands, lying frozen under an uncaring moon. The guitar tone plays no small part in this. Here, the guitars sound more like distant banks of fogs, weaving and crawling about, occasionally parting to reveal glimpses of mighty mountain ranges on the far horizon, swathed in everlasting snow. It's actually difficult to talk about riffs in the context of this album, solely because the guitars are laying down more of a homogenous slab of vaguely static-y, near-drone ambience. (This might be the gayest sentence I've ever written.) Despite this, there is a definite sense of melody, and although you may not be able to point out any single riffs for being fucking awesome or anything like that, the guitars are very harmonious and non-monotonous, and really create a forlorn, melancholy atmosphere. (Incidentally, the final track "Skinfaxi" is the only one where you'll hear some actual lead play.) The rhythm section is unremarkable, but does its job well. Drums alternate between mid-speed and slower parts, though things do speed up a bit here and there, particularly on the last two tracks. They are pretty straightforward and largely devoid of fills or any other fanciness, but that's OK really; the music absolutely does not call for any of that, and so they stay in the background musically, though they are actually about on the same level as the guitars, mix-wise. I'm not sure if there is a bass here at all. Actually, I think there is, but it's not particularly audible. That is par for the course and as such not really worth dwelling on. Besides, from a concept point of view, I can understand why it's not any juicier; you don't really want the warm pulse of a bass on an album dealing with the grim coldness of the northern darkness, do you? As perhaps to be expected, the vocals are fairly tortured and somewhere in-between hoarse screams and shrieks as the grim lyrics are delivered (such as "Grim woods of extinct northern lands/Where only spirits walk upon the overgrown paths/Towards the sunsets over ancient labyrinths of stone/And pagan monoliths are yet to pierce the skies"). They, too, are not particularly inventive, although I'll admit that their pained tones do suit the music well enough -- when they are present, of course; all in all, they do not appear too often, as is appropriate for an atmospheric album. Speaking of the lyrics, I have to hand it to Walknut: they've done a pretty good job at writing lyrics that compliment their music and support as well as enhance the atmosphere that is its mainstay. This is, in my opinion, especially noticeable on "Motherland Ostenvegr", which coincidentally also is my favourite track on the album as a whole: verses like "Endless fields/Mists and horrid woods/Barrows by the riverbanks/And autumn wind above" may be fairly straightforward in their imagery, and might not "look" good on paper, but when heard within the context of the song, they do create a sense of despair and pained longing. Finally, the line "what haunts your iron dreams, Motherland Ostenvegr?" is among the more memorable metal lyrics I've heard in quite a while, both for its conceptual implications and its power as a metaphor. If you find the atmosphere of this album captivating, you'd do well to read up on the lyrics; they might just enhance your listening experience even more. In the end it's the album's very strong mood and atmosphere that allow it to pull ahead. Walknut keep things varied enough in order not to bore the listener, but on the other hand this is not an album that assaults you with dozens of riffs per song, either. I can see how some people might (and probably will) be bored by "Graveforests and Their Shadows" regardless, as it's a fairly homogenous CD: apart from varying riffs and (drum) speeds, not a great deal "happens" within songs, and not much changes between them, either. That is not to say that one track sounds like the other, however. "Come, Dreadful Ygg" probably is the most aggressive song on this album, with pounding double bass and dark, menacing riffs -- appropriately enough, as the lyrics deal with the coming of some malevolent, ancient evil (that is my guess anyway; while Ygg is an epithet of Odin, I'm not sure he is being summoned here). "Motherland Ostenvegr", on the other hand, takes on a much slower, mournful mood and pace, mixed with "how did it come to this?" style anger, making for a quite captivating listening experience. "The Midnightforest of the Runes", at about 4:30 one of the shortest songs here, is purely instrumental and alternates between being foreboding and exuding sweet melancholy, paving the way for the last "long" track, "Grim Woods", another rather furious track with raging vocals and comparatively energetic drums. While a sense of loss is present here as well, Walknut express more than that; it is a kind of hymn, a forceful elegy mourning those "old gates of wisdom closed" and "titanic ruins [that] dream their endless dreams". Finally, instrumental closer "Skinfaxi" (incidentally the name of the horse of Dagr, the god of Daytime in Norse mythology) brings the album to a fitting end, on an almost hopeful note. Surely, the lead guitars that accompany the song as it fades into silence hold something beyond resignation and despair... In the end, "Graveforests and their Shadows" definitely won't win you over with a near-infinite succession of musical ideas. It's a very cohesive album that creates a surprisingly effective atmosphere with relatively little in the way of ingredients, featuring just the right amount of repetition to drive the point home without becoming altogether boring. At the end of the day, though, it's still firmly at home in the "atmospheric music" genre, and such may not be suitable for those who wish to bang their heads and rock out. Recommended listening: Motherland Ostenvegr, Grim Woods |