Graveland is the one-man project of one Rob Darken. He is well-known in metal circles for espousing a racist, pagan weltanschauung and, to make sure everyone takes him and his ideas seriously, taking pictures of himself in the woods wearing Medieval armor and weilding swords. I've mentioned many times that I don't care about the political/religious persuasion of an artist, and that to me personally a racist worldview is somewhat less reprehensible than an anti-Christian worldview. So, let's get to the music.
Black metal has a long history in South America, going all the way back to the first wave with Sarcófago, and of course the highly influential extreme thrash of early Sepultura. Colombia's Inquisition has been around since the first wave, beginning in 1988 as a thrash metal band. They have a fetish for long-winded album names many people may need a thesaurus to figure out, and their fifth full-length--Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm--is no exception. I don't know how anyone could see this album art and not be possessed to immediately buy the album, especially with a mouthful title like that. That's why I got it, and I'm not disappointed I did, either.
Inquisition's sound on this album is similar to their close alphabetical analogues in Immortal, especially when you look to the hard-driving and heavier songs like "Crepuscular Battle Hymn". Songs range in tempo from the almost doomy "Desolate Funeral Chant" to the much faster "Upon the Fire Winged Demon", but tend toward the faster with some mid-paced sections in most of the songs. Of course the guitars are usually tremolo picked, but they've included a lot of unmuted guitar chords. Sometimes these chords ring out as whole notes while the rhythm guitar blazes away on a high-speed tremolo riff, but other times the unmuted chords are worked into a riff that alternates between muted and unmuted chords. Both techniques provide effective contrast, as do the occasional dissonant chords. The drums are extremely clever as well, especially when you consider the fact this is intended as straight-forward black metal and not as a high-brow, Profound Lore type release. There are many slower rhythms to be found throughout the album, but even the blast beats seem to be distinctly different from song to song. The bass doesn't stand out at any point on the album.
Dagon's vocals are a big turnoff for many extreme metal fans. They've been described in a number of ways, but most popularly as a frog croak. It's really not that much different from what you'll find from Immortal's Abbath or Dimmu Borgir's Shagrath, so I'm not sure what the problem is. It's been suggested you either love or hate them, but I'm lukewarm.
OK, so that's the description, but what you really want to know is whether or not it's any good. And the answer is a definite "yes". Many of the riffs are exciting and perfectly memorable, especially on opener "Astral Path to Supreme Majesties", which also includes a highly intelligent guitar solo. The album doesn't break any ground, but it's clearly on a higher plane of existence than your average cookie-cutter continental European black metal.
The Verdict: Inquisition are members of the old guard proving that they still know how to do black metal better than any younglings, and they've outlasted most of their Norwegian peers in staying true to the genre's roots. I give Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm 4 out of 5 stars.
Nokturnal Mortum is a Ukrainian pagan metal band (i.e. black metal mixed with folk metal) associated with NSBM, and on the No Colours Records label. For those who don't know, NSBM is "national socialist" black metal (why the ideology dictates a different genre name, I'll never understand), and No Colours Records has often been associated with NSBM, though they seem to be indifferent to the ideology of the groups they sign.
I was intrigued by the sound of the band first, having never listened to anything which really falls into the pagan metal genre. After researching the band, I was a little leery of getting an album from a band which promotes these kinds of ideas. Then I smacked myself on the head. Who cares? National socialism is less offensive to me, personally, than some of the other things I listen to. Just because society as a whole has a special superhatred reserved only for racism doesn't mean it's objectively any worse than anti-Christian or any of the other multidudes of heinous ideologies.
The reason I won't buy Burzum records is because Varg Vikernes acted on his disgusting beliefs in contravention to law. Espousing them I can deal with. So I picked up Weltanschauung.
The black metal elements are mostly in the more ambient parts of the Norwegian style. Not bad at all, but what makes this stand out is the Ukrainian folk music infused throughout. It has a somewhat Oriental kind of sound to it, ironically (considering their own weltanschauung) conjuring images of gypsies, Arabs, and Persians, at least to my Western ears.
It's actually very good stuff, musically speaking. I don't recall understanding a word of the lyrics, thankfully, except for the title of one of the songs--much of it is in Russian and Ukrainian. The album is definitely NOT for those with short attention spans: it has a pattern of alternating between 1-3 minute ambient synthesizer/folk songs and 8+ minute metal songs, and the whole thing clocks in at over 74 minutes.
The Verdict: Actually, this is good stuff, if you can get past the NS taboo have a good attention span. I actually enjoyed the folksy interludes, as they tend to break up the album nicely, contrasting pretty with ugly. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Graveland
is the one-man project of one Rob Darken. He is well-known in metal circles for espousing a racist, pagan weltanschauung and, to make sure everyone takes him and his ideas seriously, taking pictures of himself in the woods wearing Medieval armor and weilding swords. I've mentioned many times that I don't care about the political/religious persuasion of an artist, and that to me personally a racist worldview is somewhat less reprehensible than an anti-Christian worldview. So, let's get to the music.
, and of course the highly influential extreme thrash of early 
--is no exception. I don't know how anyone could see this album art and not be possessed to immediately buy the album, especially with a mouthful title like that. That's why I got it, and I'm not disappointed I did, either.
Inquisition's sound on this album is similar to their close alphabetical analogues in 