Medieval Scream

A long time ago I was looking for some symphonic black metal and that's when I heard about Hellveto. Unsure of where to start, I sampled a few songs from most of the albums. Before purchasing the album, the only songs I heard from it were "Greater Land" and "Knell of Darkness." But at the time these songs stuck out the most, and soon enough I took further action to own this album as soon as possible.

Medieval Scream is Hellveto's third full length release. Those who heard Zemsta or Autumnal Night might notice a slight change in sound and production. One thing to note is that Medieval Scream's production seems a bit weaker and low-fi. But on the other hand the riffs stand out a bit more. Orchestral parts are still the leading force in the music, though. Overall, Medieval Scream seems lighter than the first two albums. By that, I mean that the sound is very well-blended, moreso than any other Hellveto releases. How LON can produce a sound like this and still give plenty of audibility to the main, essential instruments is impressive nonetheless. In such a genre, the bass is often hard to spot, but songs like "Greater Land" would tell you otherwise. Drums play little emphasis, but I haven't noticed this until recently. They're there - they aren't too powerful compared to later work - but they add the right magnitude to the music. LON makes his own sound with Hellveto, something unique that separates it from all the generic pagan symphonic bands, and Medieval Scream further reflects this.

Compared to the first two albums, the songs on Medieval Scream are more consistent in length - there are also more tracks as a result. The songs on this album also seem a little catchier. Looking at all of Hellveto's releases, there's plenty of catchy parts on each of them, but there are several instances on Medieval Scream that make you want to hum along to the music. Typical examples are "In Forgotten..." and "Kurpian Phantom", especially to the main guitar parts on the latter. "Jesienna Modlitwa" has catchy orchestral parts - I could go on forever, but each song as something to offer.

From an atmospheric standpoint, this is one of Hellveto's calmer albums. Listening to this album, I can't really sense the almost barbaric, battle-like scenes captured in the first two albums and later albums. That said, the music is very triumphant and fresh. "W Imie Czarnej Chwaly" and "Strach Zbudzonych Przestworzy" show the triumphant, glorified sound of this album. While the former may start out as a little redundant, it slowly gets better. The latter is easily one of the best tracks on the album, with excellent, though short, guitar riffs. However, the guitarwork seems to improve on later albums, but it's still great here.

The introduction and ending are pretty standard. Nothing too over the top, but they add to the strength of the album. The track "Tears of War" is a great prelude to the ending track and gives many complex sounding orchestral parts. The outro has a very romantic, spartan feel that should certainly not be ignored.

The vocals on this album are pretty standard - slightly higher pitched shielded under a low-fi production. There aren't really any chants on Medieval Scream, but instead there's a lot of low-pitched spoken vocals (Not in the vain of Dimmu Borgir or Hecate Enthroned).

Now that I own about 7 or 8 Hellveto releases, looking back at Medieval Scream, it's certainly no longer my favorite release, nor do I think it's their best, but it certainly has a special place in my collection. There's nothing specifically wrong with Medieval Scream - nothing typically stands out as incompetent - it's just personal opinion that I didn't give the release a higher score. I do recommend that if you ever want to hear Hellveto and never have before, then Medieval Scream would be the first place to look. It's a concise album that will surely entertain any pagan, symphonic black metal fans and will stand the test of time.