Sekerou Peruna a kladivom Thora

Concubia Nocte is an unusual pagan metal band, which is obvious when one looks at the title of the album: By the Axe of Perun, by the Hammer of Thor. Very few bands attempt to combine western/Nordic and eastern/Slavic mythological influences in one album.

The album starts with a beautiful melodic intro (arguably one of the best in the genre), where instruments are added throughout the track with the baseline melody still in the background to create the right atmosphere for the upcoming...

...pagan storm. Fast tracks which bring about melodies (guitars and keyboards combined) with a nice growl. From my point of view, Concubia Nocte succeeded best when blending the same melody played by guitar and keyboards at once. Sometimes the recording quality is average, but most of the times you can hear all the sounds, instruments, melodies and vocals that the band intended.

The best thing about the whole album is that nothing ever gets boring, tracks are not artificially prolonged to an unbearable "false epicness". Everything begins and finishes at the right time. Besides the intro I personally liked and enjoyed Roh Velesa (Horn of Veles), Concubia Nocte and Epilogue (Laktibrada).

To sum up, Sekerou Peruna, kladivom Thora is definitely a piece to have in your collection if you are keen on pagan black metal, in particular from Slovakia. This metal sub-genre is also very specific in the fact, that both growl and clear vocal are viable, most preferably combined at once or with utilization of clear voice only to spice things up. Maybe a suggestion for the future?