Vampyrìsme, nècrophilie, nècrosadisme, nècrophagie

The band's first full length featured a continuation of their black metallish ideas from the Nosferatu demo. And honestly, all I've wished for this band is to evolve into this style, but with better quality and a little more keyboards here and there. But what they actually did was to slowly get rid of all the black metal influences and add too many keyboards! Anyway, on to the actual album:

The first track, 'Intro Twilight Kingdom', begins with ome atmospheric keyboard and Lord Vampyr speaking something from Bram Stoker's Dracula. Then the actual song begins with tremolo picking and fast drumming as Lord Vampyr says something about the Romanian city Sighisoara and 'The Princess of Evil Made Flesh' *wow, now where did I hear this name? Replace "Princess" with "Principle" and you'll know what I mean*. The guitar riffs in this song are actually great, and Lord Vampyr shows us once again his vocal talent with chants and many, many shrieks. Also, at the ending riff, the drumming is actually cool too!

The Lands Beyond the Forest starts off with fast tremolo picking and drumming. Then the riffs change to mid paced and Lord Vampyr shrieks once again some stuff about vampires. In the middle of the song the guitars get slower and more melodic, and that's a nice feature for a black metal album which we won't see that much. At 2:17 the keyboards FINALLY come in this song, but they're not something special or unique, they're more of a backing instrument in here. At 3:00 the guitars return to being melodic and slow as Lord Vampyr whispers in the background. The whispers soon turn into growls and the instruments join the keyboards once again, ending the song. Reborn in the Wood begins with some fast guitars *nothing new here*, then with some catchy riffs, and then Lord Vampyr's join soon *again, nothing new*. The keyboards can barely be heard, and it's a shame, since the riffs in this one are actually great! And well, that's how we can describe the whole song, nothing new is brought to the table, yet. Woods of Valacchia proves the opposite, however, despite the mispelling of the word Wallachia. The song begins with fast drumming, Lord Vampyr's shrieks and catchy tremolo picking. The keyboards create a horror movie atmosphere as Lord Vampyr shrieks something about how 'blood will be life'. The drums and guitars aid the keyboards in creating this beautiful and melodic atmosphere, but I guess you know already what to expect from this band. At 1:47 the keyboards play one of the coolest church organ riffs I've ever heard, and the rest of the instruments join in, the guitar playing the same riff. Then we have a little slow bridge with the keyboards trying to be 'horror movie like' once again, but then they repeat the same awesome riff as before, although you notice that some instruments are a bit off rythm. Then the guitar plays an awesome riff as well, and is soon joined by the keyboards. Once they all stop, Lord Vampyr does a witch chant and the instruments soon join him with slow-paced riffs, but things get faster as he starts shrieking. At 5:04 the guitar plays something more melodic, once again with a background keyboard, but then at 5:45 the riffs start to repeat, revealing that these are all the ideas that Lord Vampyr had. Still, this is one of the best songs off this album, as it mixes the black metal feeling with melody perfectly!

Within the Dark Domain starts with a sudden shriek and then some fast guitars, this time the band keeping themselves more melodic. Lord Vampyr sings about how a man is traped in a haunted house and how the girl which lured him there is a vampire which hates crucifixes a little too much. After 2 minutes of this formula, the keyboards finally join the other instruments and Lord Vampyr switches from shrieks to chants once more, making the song even cooler! Then the tremolo picking from the first parts of the song is repeated once more, and once it ends, things get more melodic as Lord Vampyr tries to impersonate the crucifix hating lady, which is a bit cheesy. Hiring a female vocalist for this would've been better. The keyboard joins in once again, but not for long, as Lord Vampyr decides to repeat the beginning tremolo picking parts once again. The song ends with the cool keyboards from the second minute of the song and some more of Lord Vampyr's chants. Upon the Darkest Mountain has some of the album's most melodic tremolo picking, but it has only shrieks, which is the only downpoint of this song. It should've had some clean vocals here and there, especially since every guitar part is eargasm. While the Snow Turns Red has some great string parts and great fast-paced guitars and drums as well. Lord Vampyr's shrieks are truly killer in this one, but this song's problem is that it's a little too off rythm and quite a little hard to enjoy because of that.

The album closes with its best track, Vlad the Impaler. It's obvious, since it talks about the very person which inspired the Dracula myth. It starts with some catchy tremolo picking to which Lord Vampyr shrieks a bit. Then, all of a sudden, all the instruments stop and you can barely hear the bass playing a nice melody. Lord Vampyr suddenly shrieks and the guitar plays the same melody as the bass with tremolo picking, with the drums adding more speed. Then things get slower and Lord Vampyr does some chants. Afterwards, this whole formula is repeated, with the church organ playing the bass melody as well. At 2:45 things get even more slower, with the church organ creating a haunting atmosphere and Lord Vampyr first doing some clean vocals and then shrieking. The instruments make one last attempt at true black metal, but with slower tempo, and once the tremolo picking and Lord Vampyr finish their job, we're left with the church organ, which closes the whole album with one of the creepiest melodies I've ever heard!

Overall, if you're a black metal fan or if you've loved their Nosferatu demo, then do yourself a favor and grab this release too, since it's one of their best black metal works! Sadly, after this album, the band added more gothic keyboards to their songs and they've also given up the poor recording, as they slowly started to stray away from black metal.
Favorite tracks: Twilight Kingdom, Woods of Valaccia, Within the Dark Domain, Upon the Darkest Mountain, While the Snow Turns Red, Vlad the Impaler