VAThis is a pretty huge undertaking. The review I mean not the album… Seventeen songs, many of them not short, by a collection of black/pagan metal luminaries brought together by Roman Seyenko of Drudkh with the idea of exploring the cultural musical heritage of their respective homelands through traditional songs. We get Primordial, Drudkh, Winterfylleth, Ave Inferi, Himinbjorg, Haive, Kampfar and Mondvolland in this collection, so a pretty impressive bunch to say the least. Some take the acoustic folk route, some go full tilt black metal, some weave a path between the two poles; regardless of the approach the air of mutual and cultural respect herein is high and all the surprises are good.

I tend to think that albums of this nature tend to attract buyers based on the concept and participants as much as anything so simply from the above description I’d reckon that many will have already made their mind up. If you like any of the bands mentioned I’d reckon that you probably have no folk aversion, and the thought of Winterfylleth’s Chris Naughton singing “down, down, derry derry down… ” shouldn’t be an issue. And frankly if it is then you really should get this album and view it as a proper education because you need it.

So what surprises might you find herein? Well as a simple introduction, we get Primordial’s ‘Dark Horse On The Wind’, a virtually unaccompanied Alan Nemtheanga Averill delivering a vocal tour de force of a dirge, a hair raising performance that leaves you in no doubt as to the quality of this album. This is followed by Drudkh with the semi-acoustic ‘Forgotten Lullaby’ which would have scared me to death as a bairn with its sinister undertones and Haive with ‘Ei Kuul Emo Minua’ which is a mid paced, dark pagan metal arrangement which takes us clear across the spectrum if the album.

Really this is an album to discover for yourself; like wandering along a beach, differing eyes are drawn to different pebbles. This isn’t reviewers’ shorthand for “I can’t be bothered… “, it really is half the joy finding and snatching up these small treasures. I’ll share a couple though, yes. Winterfylleth’s bleak and beautiful acoustic duet on ‘John Barleycorn’ is a huge highlight for me, as is Primordial’s version of the remembrance song of ‘The Foggy Dew’ and Himinbjorg’s almost gentle despite the vocals ‘Esprit De Brave’. It fits together remarkably well as an album and as a scan across some of the areas of Europe and their musical heritage and can only be commended and highly recommend to any fan of pagan and folk metal. I just hope someone tries the same outside of Europe too.

(8/10 Gizmo) 

http://www.season-of-mist.com/bands/compilation