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Branikald > Струн натянутых вдохновенья сталь > Reviews > Orlok666
Branikald - Струн натянутых вдохновенья сталь

The Strings of Inspiration Sing - 85%

Orlok666, November 8th, 2011

This demo/album The Strings of Inspiration Sing comes from a period of Branikald's career which seems to be rather obscure, mainly due to the fact that most of the recordings from this album to the Triumph of the Will (Kaldrad's last Branikald full length as of this date) were all released primarily as self-releases, leading them to be, even through downloading, hard finds.

Despite this I would state this period of self-releases represent some of Branikald's best and most spiritual work. Opening with a clean guitar ambient piece, this album displays that melancholy and cold spirit that any fan of the Blazebirth Hall scene loves. Once the black metal kicks in with the second track we are balls deep in the traditional BBH sound. Raw distant riffs, with a primal ambient drum beat underneath and the aggressive screams of Kaldrad. Kaldrad has always been one of my favorite bm vocalists, and he is always excellent. For those who have not heard his work, it is most similar to projects like Drudkh and Astrofaes, meaning his vocal sound is more of a throaty scream, not so much the raspy or high pitched screams most often heard in bm.

The production on this release is medium raw, meaning it is easily listenable and not so raw as to require some kind of masochistic mind frame to enjoy. It's not quite as good as some of the other, better known BBH releases, but certainly is far from terrible.

The music is for the most part strongly within the Branikald tradition, though I would say it presents a more folk oriented riffing style then found in say the Forest releases, or the more depressive, ambient releases like Blikk Av Kald or Av Vinterkald. It has a bit more of the aggressive feeling with the melancholy aspects being more reduced. Despite this the overall feeling is geared towards a spirituality highly influenced by Kaldrad's heathenism. This is NSBM that is spiritual and often lyrically has little to do with the mostly hate filled rants or Nazi-worship of most NSBM.

Although to newcomers of the BBH scene I would probably suggest another release (perhaps one of the Forest albums or earlier Branikald releases) this album is essential for anyone who loves the BBH as much as I do.