...za vječan ponos i čast!

I wanted to give this demo a 90 or above. The four actual songs are brilliant, proud and fierce Slavonic folk metal. It almost seems like they were afraid to put out something that lasted too much less than 20 minutes. So there are six tracks of various ambient ideas - wind blowing, bird chirping, minimalist ritual drumming, swords clashing - that fill up about five minutes. The wind-chimey "I Ledeni Vjetrovi Utihnu" is interesting enough to stand on its own. For the rest, though, Stribog would have been wiser to combine that stuff into one ambient-type piece, like their Croat compatriots Slavogorje did in the enchanting masterpiece "Jelenov Poj".

All that is just a minor gripe, though, and didn't cost them much of a score. As for the four real songs, they are short but wild. Flutes and keys dominate the wonderfully catchy melody department, with the guitar and bass weightily anchoring the rhythm. Not to relegate them to Korpiklaani-style goofery, though. No simple-minded chugging here. Guitars show high-quality black metal technique, most notably on "U Vucjem Oku Oganj". Everywhere the drums push a song into blacker territory, the guitar ably keeps up, occasionally spelling the folk instruments as melody leader. One point of criticism is that, despite a smooth production quality, the bass is conspicuously hard to pick out. It's played skilfully, with surprising creativity considering it's essentially a second rhythm guitar, but takes too much effort to sense.

Drums vary from a traditional black metal outpouring of blasts to a paganised battle march. The latter is especially effective on "Krunidba Slavena", along with the most complete instrumental, "Panonia". I would have liked to see "Crnobog" combined into that one, as they feature similar flag-waving drum patterns and flute melodies, as well as hard choppy guitar licks in support. For black metal purists, the drums' most consistent blast rampage can be found on "Called by Voices". Still, I must point out that he never relies on Dark Funeral-ish constant speed. His mix of tempos and patterns is much more appropriate to this folked-up sub-genre.

The vocal performance here is amazing. The singer generally prefers the black metal higher pitch, and is fiercely expressive when he uses it. On "Krunidba Slavena", he switches into a death growl. It works, and kudos to him for not core-ing it up by dropping to absurd deepness just for the sake of extreme. But his best work is the black metal range, the high-water mark being "U Vucjem Oku Oganj". This is the most manic shrieking I've heard in years, further reinforced by the awesome choice to layer it against some clear chanting. Lyrically, all I can comment on is "Called by Voices". Stribog's first foray into writing English lyrics is a resounding success. I look forward to more in upcoming releases. "Harken ye, for what I see defies words and thoughts. Eternally I shall walk the hall of hundred candles"... Eternally I shall remember this song. 

All in all, this demo includes some heartfelt concepts and great musical intuition. I look forward to Stribog refining their somewhat disjointed ambient- folk-black metal mixture from here on. If successful, we could have a replacement for Negura Bunget! (Fellow Croats Slavogorje were well on the way to that status before their unfortunate demise.