Wow, this is incredibly unique Ukranian black metal. I find it easy to ignore their Nazi views and just concentrate on the atmosphere and quality of the music. They are the first band I've heard which successfully integrates black metal with folk music, and by folk music I mean very organic sounding wind instruments added to parts of songs playing very jovial, upbeat tunes. The only area where I would say this band isn't completely unique is that the atmosphere aroused by the guitaring is often reminscent of Emperor in their prime, and to me this isn't a bad thing at all! I'm sure other Emperor fans will agree. They have a magic about them which reminds me of Emperor. The sparingly used clean vocals are unlike anything I've heard in black metal; they sound very androgynous, but this I don't mind, because such worldly concerns seem meaningless when listening to an album which distracts you from reality as this does. The songwriting is brilliant and majestic, especially on track 3 which I think should go down as a black metal classic. It has an intro which is eerie and beautiful at the same time, with its folk influences, and then it goes on to be slightly beat and rhythm guitar oriented before going into an archaic violin sound which interacts perfectly with this beat. This is the catalyst for the song to delve into black metal fury. So obviously this album is something different, but I actually recommend that all black metal fans out there just pick this up and take a risk, without even checking out an mp3 first, so you can be spellbound and shocked by this on first listen. It's worth it let me assure you. Best black metal release of 2000.

This review is credited to:
Julian Forbes