Vade Retro Sonnenlicht

Veter Daemonaz perform fast black metal, and quite interesting black metal: most often the riffs, which sound here, are pretty graceful, but very strict in their daintiness, – they have something from the Swedish melodic black metal school, but in general it's an original material. It can be said that the melody flows continually, so, with such a manner of songwriting / performing, there is no need for solo parts – yes, indeed, they are absent in Veter Daemonaz' music.

However, their black metal cannot be called as "full-fledged" melodic, because their melodies are usually not memorable and still less haunting: riffs are built according to one pattern, so you do not always catch, where one ends and a new one begins. Hence, in particular, the third track "The Sun to the Slaughter" sounds like a continuation of the second "Following a Hidden Path" – a little consolation is that the second half of this song seems more diverse. But do not forget about the mentioned flow: in general, we can talk about a solid blastbeat attack, and at the same time a very atmospheric attack.

The mixing is strange: it feels like the lead guitar has poor distortion on it, all the distortion in the sound comes from the rhythm guitar, which more often than not repeats the parties of the lead one. The fourth song "Grant Me the Vision" has a mid-tempo start, and it becomes clear here, that there is a lot of fizz in the rhythm guitar sound – it is really overdistorted, – and it drowns out the lead guitar. Be that as it may, this composition presents a much more piercing feeling from the standpoint of Veter Daemonaz' music, and it's more interesting and more complex in its structure – definitely, this is the best song on their part of the release. In some places it resembles Dissection, although at 1:43 you can identify the Immortal riff almost one to one.

There is a lot of lyrics in Veter Daemonaz' songs. The lyrics are in Russian, and I must admit that it's not always possible to hear such remarkable (that means "not stupid") texts, so it's quite clear why the vocalist revels in his message. Sometimes he brays his innermost and invaluable thoughts in a clear voice, and this gives the music some desperate craving for something inexpressible. The vocals are very artistic here.

In turn, the music of Shadow ov Fenris is much gloomier. It's not lacking in a certain beauty too, but its melodism is not one in the spirit of the Swedish school at all. The downstroke style of playing often brings to mind "revived" Burzum (I mean "Belus" and maybe "Fallen"). The Burzum influence is not limited to this invisible presence: there is a bit abstract guitar fingerpicking in the sixth song "Carnifex" at 5:35, but, despite its abstractness, Burzum is definitely recognizable in this fragment. And at the very end at 8:57 a tremolo sounds totally in the vein of "Jesu død". Concerning other interesting points, I also note the slow bridge in the fifth track "Ravenous Waves" – there are uncommon riffs and an interesting manner of playing here.

Shadow ov Fenris rush into the attack periodically, but I must say that they begin to resemble Veter Daemonaz at fast parts, that is, their originality is lost: all the charm of their music is in slow passages I think. In the last seventh track "Salvation Be in Blinks of Blades" fast attack dominates, and because of it, the achievement of previous songs in creating the gloomy atmosphere is somewhat dulled, moreover the composition itself seems lingering, although there was not such a feeling in the previous one (they are the same in duration).

Like in the case of the first band, the songs of Shadow ov Fenris are of the same tenor, this is especially noticeable at the slow fragments a la Burzum, but there is a certain charm in this monotony – the material is mesmerizing, almost dropping into depression. The mixing is almost the same: the lead guitar sounds unobtrusively and nonintrusively, sometimes it is very poorly audible, as if its entire distortion had been "eaten up" by the rhythm guitar. But bass is very well audible here, and much credit in the creation of a gloomy and suffocating atmosphere must go to the bass parts. As opposed to the antecedent band, the vocals are used less in the material of Shadow ov Fenris, and the voice more creates atmosphere than conveys the message, although in some places it clearly would not hurt the entire sound to make it quieter.

I also listened to this release in reverse order: first Shadow ov Fenris, and then Veter Daemonaz. With this method, after the "low frequency depression", the recording of Veter Daemonaz seems to be "high frequency", and the music sounds almost like early Dark Funeral, or even At the Gates. In addition, the "ear is accustomed" effect actuates: the lead guitar sounds smoothly now, while the rhythm guitar obediently fulfills its role in the background. In general, it turns out that from the musical view Veter Daemonaz are more interesting than Shadow ov Fenris. The bands can be compared with each other in this way: Veter Daemonaz is a blistering flight through the spiteful Cosmos, while Shadow ov Fenris is, well, like a smashing with a hammer something hateful to you.