Kveldulv

Branikald is a national socialist band from Russia run by a single musician called Kaldrad and sometimes utilizing the help of another called Wizard. The two of them are part of an inner circle known as The Blazebirth Hall which includes some of the most influential NS black metal bands as well as some of the first Russian true black metal bands.

This album, Kveldulv, is a pretty nice example of what genreally comes out of the Blazebirth Hall. But this album seems to have a bit better quality. Although somewhat minimal and anti-climactic, the songs are more complicated than usual for this band and the riffs better and with more diversity. Plenty of good atmosphere too.

The vocals are very interesting as well, Branikald stay away from the high pictched shrieking and stick to a deeper screaming sort of thing. While the vocals sometimes tend to get drowned out by the guitars because they sounds so close to the same frequency, they do a good job of adding the extra harshness the albums needs.

The problems are few and far between; One being the sound quality. I like bad sound quality, so that isn't the problem, the real problem is inconsistent sound quality. The third song was produced in a different way, not sure how, maybe a different kind of microphone or a different guitar tone, production on it is different from the first two and I think the album would be overall better if the other two songs were made to have to same sounds as this one. It sounds like there is more distortion on the overall sound. Certain frequencies seem to be cut, while others are given a boost. The drums are not extremely creative, usually just pounding out the same beat through the whole song with some fills and crashes here and there. Brings to mind Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger wherein the drums just take up the space beneath the guitars instead of really being involved in the melodies and riffs

The last track is a very calming ambient strumming track that greatly changes speed somewhere in the middle; It's one of the best ambient tracks I've heard and I think it ends the album perfectly.

In retrospect, this is a good album, but it could have been great if the songs were a little more climactic rather than so straight forward. The riffs and guitar work carry most of the weight here. I am satisfied with it