Wow! I don't even know where to begin. This album is a flawless, melodic, epic, glorious masterpiece. I'll surely put this record among the best albums ever recorded, not only in metal but in music. Almost everything on here is top quality from start to finish.
Nokturnal Mortum has been a quite known and popular band within the metal community and is maybe the best metal band that Ukraine has offered us. They formed in the late 90's and released a couple of good albums such as “Lunar Poetry”, “Goat Horns” and “To the Gates of Blasphemous Fire but although those albums were good, enjoyable and showed the potential and talent this band had and could achieve they were unluckily flawed. We had to wait for almost a decade (this album took many years to compose and record) to fully listen to their magnus opus : which is a everlasting masterpiece. Definitely one of the best worth waits ever. This album is comparable with the next one "Verity", and it's very arguable yet.
To start with, almost every feature such like composition, songwriting, production or originality is perfect on here. This website defines Nokturnal Mortum's sound as “symphonic folk / black metal”, which is completely true. However, this albums incorporates elements from several metal genres and mixes them in the right way. Lead vocals are closer to a black metal shrieking style but we can also hear epic melodic backing vocals similar to pagan/folk/viking ones, which both are great and add epicity to the music. Guitars sound with a high and cold tone which create an epic and beautiful atmosphere which are sometimes sadly buried by their oversaturated distortion, but if we listen to the whole album this is not a great problem. Guitarists also perform some great solos which remind us of heavy / power metal ones, and fit the music wonderfully. Bass is buried in the mix, but we don't care because it's not the main instrument on here and it's just an accompaniment. Drums are very well played since we can hear outstanding blastbeats and slower parts, furthermore its sound is wonderful and their volume in the mix is perfectly listenable. Apart from the traditional metal/rock instruments we also find a great variety of folk slavic instruments, flutes and violins that make the music sound beautiful and makes you feel that folkloric spirit that this band wants to convey, but unlike many folk metal bands; they do not sound cheesy nor corny but amazing and glorious. Keyboards are also excellent since unlike many symphonic metal bands, they're NOT the main instrument. This was in my opinion the main mistake in Nokturnal Mortum's previous album “Goat Horns”, but here they have supposedly noticed that mistake and have corrected it : keyboards make a wonderful, melancholic and magic atmosphere along with guitars, folk instruments and backing vocals. Musically, we can also find progressive rock elements that remind me of classic bands like Pink Floyd or Grateful Dead; let's take for example “Valkyrie” (one of my favorites), in the middle of the song begins a progressive part accompanied by a guitar solo which is amazing. All the musicianship on here is very talented and have a high quality.
Overall, musically I describe this album as “the soundtrack for victory”. Just listening to it, it makes us dream and travel through space and makes us imagine to be a warrior. When it sounds, it makes me feel instantly happy and gives me lots of hope and strength. This is the music I would put in a movie battle scene, since it fits with battles perfectly. It's the soundtrack for victory, for hope and for glory. Most lyrics sing about heathenism or folklore. The song “Ukraine” should be Ukraine's national anthem for sure, it is one of the most epic and emotional songs I've ever heard, it's a song dedicated to the band's fatherland. The rest of lyrics are wonderfully written and are beautiful poetry. All lyrics are sung in Ukranian, the band's native language which is something I truly appreciate.
The production is PERFECT. Unlike previous Nokturnal Mortum's albums on which production were poorer, on here they have highly managed to achieve their sound. Every instrument is suitably balanced in the mix; however, as I mentioned above, sometimes guitars are too far distorted and drown other instruments in the mix but if you get used to the sound it won't hinder you.
Less importantly, the cover is beautiful. It shows a heathen god (I suppose) forging a great magic sword with a hammer surrounded by fire. Some women and valkyries also appear. The red-orange tones makes it look amazing.
So, this is one of the greatest albums ever recorded not only in metal, but in all kinds of music. It is an everlasting masterpiece that will be remembered for years and decades and will never be forgotten by metal and music fans. Few things surpass this. Buy it or die (unless you do not want to support the band).
Sample:
youtube.com/watch?v=yeQxp3kxXj8&list=RDyeQxp3kxXj8&start_radio=1
