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not bad, not great - 50%
It's hard to believe that even Nokturnal Mortum went on the same bandwagon to rerecord old material and present it as new. I consider these to be cheap attempts which usually kill the original mood. It can go both ways, I am reminded of 2010 Varg's remake fail, or the Absurd 2008, a needed facelift to their early discography. Here it is 50/50. While being used to the old record, it is a new treat for a fan, which may be cool in itself.
I prefer the original demo version. There are some intros and overall sound they improved on. The production value starting with the intro has this modern Gary Numan melancholic orchestration feel to it. Some things they changed I didn't like. Like "Ancient Nation" I didn't like here, but "Grief of Oriana" I liked this version more. Overall improvement was done in "Carpathian Mysteries" and in "...and Winter Becomes". They succeeded in bringing a more fuller sound to the songs as I assume they intended in the beginning. There are hints of Verity sound on it. It's definitely better than Verity though.
"To Lunar Poetry" sounds and feels totally different from the original. One of the reasons is that NM tuned it down a whole 5th. That's 2.5 steps lower than original! Some parts were also changed. For example the Return of Vampire Lord, doesn't sound anything like the original song except for the intro and outro. Perun's celestial Silver reworking has a slower part at around 5 minutes in which in this version just feels so out place, for me it makes this version to be the weakest of all of them. The lyrical change feels very foreign to the original recording.
Usually it is about the small things that were exciting on the original, which can be overlooked here, like the pinch harmonics on "Return of the Vampire Lord" is missing in this version, I thought made that part of the song very exciting. I can respect Nokturnal Mortum for trying something new. It's good in some parts and bad too, and too different in others. I perfect the original myself, but still enjoy this new one.
