Temnozor (Темнозорь) "Folkstorm Of The Azure Nights" CD

Temnozor's third full lenght album "Folkstorm of the Azure Nights" is a convincing piece of folk black metal with all the necessary elements put together in harmonic balance. Acoustic and beautiful guitar parts, freezingly distorted strings, atmospheric and melancholic synths, plentiful flutes and vocals of both clean singing and more aggressive expression all form this album of pure uncensored emotion. "Folkstorm" begins with a sad synth melody that keeps on going for five minutes until the song achieves its full shape. Alongside the synths we soon hear the drums and guitar both going where the simple but harrowing synth melody leads them. When the singing finally starts, I feel the cold and ancient world of paganism and nature this band has dedicated their lives on. This first song lasts almost 10 minutes and perfectly sets the mood for what is coming next.
The second song, however, is very different to the first one. This is among my favourite folk black metal songs with its incredible sense of playfulness, energy and dancing folk melodies mostly expressed by guitars. The song begins with a brief scream of a crow, after which the guitars explode to their first riff. The best part of this six minute song comes in the middle of it when after some build-up sword clinging the guitars start to introduce that extremely joyful and manipulative folk riff that simply bursts the whole sky into sunlight. Drums are also great in this part as they create a complex rhythm of their own. This song is totally unique and I believe many feel the need to hear it soon again after the first listen which will most likely make the melody stay in listener's mind.
Rest of the album is as it should be. Emotions ranging from melancholy, sadness, grief and sense of something valuable lost while emotions of pure light and joy are never forgotten either. This is typical among these folk, nationalistic or "nazi metal" bands that dedicate all their non-commercial work to praising their father land and ancestors. There are extremely beautiful and touching acoustic guitar melodies coming with this album created by a group of naturally talented musicians. Temnozor brings Ukraine's Drudkh to my mind in many ways: both deal with politically extreme themes as expressed through their incomparably emotional and multi-leveled black metal music. There is no question about the talent of these song-writers no matter how wrong some might think their opinions and racist views are. And after all, wrath and love are the principal elements of human existence, both emotions make the other and man exist.
Temnozor's second album "Horizons" and "Folkstorm of the Azure Nights" are equally folk and melancholic with the latter taking the epic and atmospheric ideas of the former even further, and possibly with a slightly more freezing and reaping sound in the guitars. Both albums make the listener experience his/her visions of silent melancholy and memories after which the light once again arrives in the form of some fantastic and playful melody of folk and dance.

Sample: