Ancient Will

Now this split-CD is quite difficult to review. Two unknown bands, first from Ireland and second from Belgium. Both play black metal, but from different starting-points. Heinrichreich is a one-man band, with Jorg Heinrich playing all instruments save the cello, and celebrating, in his own words, Slovak and Irish culture.

Heinrichreich side of the split clearly shows promise but does npt quite live up to expectations. Vocals are well performed though your typical bm growl, but I admit to have liked them. As a musician Mr. Heinrich is clearly talented, but what bothers me a little bit are the songs and the overall atmosphere. Let me elaborate a little.

“Teutonic Forest” is quite a good song with catchy guitar riff. In other songs, notably “My Journey to the Fantasy” and “Poison in the Vein” it seems like just one riff is used and slightly varied. All songs are also near mid-tempo speed, with no variation there. An occasional slower or faster piece would give the listener some respite. The guitar-sound in the songs is very high -tuned and almost merry, which in my opinion is not fitting in black metal at all. Production in first half of the CD has a home-made feel in a way. So, for next production, please 1) tune down your guitars, 2) “roughen up” the production, and 3) write songs that differ from each other in tempo and structure.

Taranis seems to be a little more mature when it comes to song-writing. All the songs are quite coherent and musicians in this Belgian band don’t strike the wrong chord. “Bright Shield” and “Feeding the Ravens” stand out from the rest, they both have good riffs and guitar-work. There are two things, however, that lower the points for Taranis. First, the drumming, though decently done, sounds in the album too thin. Production fails at this respect. Second, the vocals are distorted in the style of Venom, and I’m not too fond of that kind of singing. To be frank, it started to annoy me greatly after 2-3 songs.

To judge the split as a whole, I will give it above-mentioned 60 points. If both bands keep developing, who knows what they score the next time?