Thulnar

Thulnar, a band that truly deserves much attention. There are countless reasons for this. I will try to point out as many as I can in my review.


The album opens with Dawn, an excellent symphonic/orchestral intro with many brass instruments and influences of classical music in it. True fans of the symphonic black metal genre will immediately like it. The next song continues the orchestrations, but adds great guitars and drums, and also introduces the vocals. Yes, the vocals. The vocalist is doing an excellent job! His voice fits the atmosphere perfectly. It is the typical black metal high-pitched voice, but not annoying at all (to compare things, I'll say he sounds pretty much like St. Julius from Capitollium)! He even manages to be understandable most of the time.


Keyboards and orchestrations are dominant throughout the whole album, but there are still quite many cool guitar riffs. The drums seem a bit generic at times, but that does not spoil the atmosphere, for we must note that this is a two-man band only.


The song 'Old Graveyard of Manor-Sul' is an example of what these guys are capable of. Moreover, the whole song is highly inspired by Konami's Castlevania series. Church organs dominate almost the whole song and it totally sounds like Bloody Tears from Konami's Super Castlevania 4 which is just great!


The lyrics are another thing which made me rate this album with 100 points. The lyrics do carry quite some intellectual value. They do not deal with the usual 'kill everyone for Satan' shit. Listening to them is a real pleasure.


Overall, I highly recommend this album to all symphonic black metal fans. The ones of you who like classical music in combination with metal (e.g. Haggard, The Eternal Blade, Memories of Pain, etc.) should also have a look. However, those of you who do not like keyboards or any forms of orchestrations in black metal, should better avoid this.


Thulnar's music is currently free and can be downloaded at the band's official site. Highly recommended!