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Wyrd > Heathen > Reviews > Visionary
Wyrd - Heathen

Paganism in its truest form. - 98%

Visionary, September 27th, 2005

Wow this guy has balls of steel releasing a 1 song album of 59 minutes! Most albums of the sort get boring by the 10 or 15minutes marker but this one actually leaves me wanting more.

This album is Epic, Beautiful and very folk oriented. Beautiful and enchanting riffs combined with an extensive vocal range pays tribute to nature. No nature black metal band has won me over quite like Wyrd has on this occasion. Agalloch, Drudkh and Woods Of Ypres have produced excellent albums but none reach the quality of this.

Heathen sounds similar to Agalloch except with a greater sense of epic, passion and includes rough vocals. The riffs produce a very warm feeling that flows nicely through the album and changes a lot being dramatic ness and relaxation. Often acoustic passages are included that changes the song up nicely.

Now the vocals are just amazing on here. A lot of clean vocals are used here and the lyrics show a sense of heritage and tribute to the founding fathers. Long periods of time go by that don’t include any vocals and then they come out in full force and it kicks ass. The vocals are also raspy sounding like a heavy wind for a lot of the time. Often spoken passages are included with sounds of wind and rain (that do not at all sound cheesy) with very powerful lyrics and for once the lyrics actually have a positive effect on me rather than just sounding like some silly satanic crap.

There is a lot of variation on this album and the riffs repeat each other but only for short periods of time and change at just the right moment to keep the listener from getting bored. The intensity shifts throughout the album but flows perfectly so the listener feels like they are traveling some journey within the realms of the world Wyrd has created. Sometimes the song has a break and Wyrd builds up a very folk melody that makes me picture a bunch of happy people dancing around in the woods and I just want to dance with them.

This album could not be broken down into multiple parts for this is something that needs to be heard right from the beginning to end. Don’t let the fact that this is one song put you off. I usually dislike these sorts of albums because of my short attention span but I fell in love here. For fans of Agalloch, Woods Of Ypres, Drudkh or any other similar nature bands should go and check this out now if you haven't already.