Glorious North Productions 2013
1.The Great Hall of the Sky 2.Dawn Calling of Thunor 3.Eithtelor
4.Heathen Lands 5.I Am the Winds of the Earth 6.A Mound to Lay My Bones Upon
7.Crows
‘The True Cult Of The Earth’ is the second full length album
from one man black metal band Nordland. Having praised the band’s first album,
this second offering promised a lot from Vorh and his misanthropic brand of
Black Metal. Opening Track ‘The Great Hall Of The Sky’ is an absolute monster
of a track, being the longest on the album and clocking in at just over
thirteen minutes. It does however have a lot to offer, beginning slowly and
mournfully in extremely grim fashion, the ‘moaned’ vocals and very slow, doom
laden pace makes for a very sombre opening passage. There is a change of pace, a
faster blast beat section being used, but overall the pace of the song is kept
to a minimum throughout the majority of its life which in all honesty is where
the song sounds at its best. Haunting atmospheres, windswept soundscapes all
make for a chilling, haunting and utterly devastating opening track. The fact
that the song is over thirteen minutes is insignificant as you get drawn into
the utter morbidity on offer, and time becomes irrelevant as the music takes
over. ‘Dawn Calling Of Thunor’ is introduced through the use of a bellowing
horn before the harsh and scathing black metal riffs take over. There is a
slight increase in pace as the song gradually comes to life, but this doesn’t last
long, the slower more mournful pace used so successfully in the opening track
again implemented here to great effect. These slower paces are so much more
effective. However, there are some really catchy guitar lines which utilise a
faster pace which really gives the song a truly epic feel. Great Stuff!
‘Eithtelor’
is an extremely hypnotic track, very simple in composition, seemingly stripped
back to a minimum in terms of song writing. That’s not a criticism, as the
simplicity this song offers is key to its success. Again, short passages of
fast blast beat, hate-filled passages are introduced and sound extremely
effective here and once again makes for a very effective black metal offering.
‘Heathen Lands’ is the shortest song on the album, but still comes in at well
over five minutes long and is another fine example of very catchy and epically
atmospheric black metal. There’s almost ‘Immortal feel’ to this track, both
musically and vocally which isn’t a bad thing at all as again, its catchy and
its epically grim and makes for great sounding black metal. ‘I Am The Winds Of
The Earth’ is fantastic, the pace has been upped, there’s a greater sense of
urgency to this track which has a more traditional feel to it, i.e. the faster
drumming, the faster picked, harsh guitars and the utterly scathing vocal
delivery. Vorh has a great ability to write compelling black metal, no matter
what the speed, be it the slower of faster, the end result is still first rate,
catchy and memorable! ‘A Mound To Lay My Bones’ follows on in similar fashion,
differing paces again utilised to great effect albeit with a more punishing and
exhaustive approach. The haunting atmospheres heard in the earlier tracks rear
their ugly heads again as the song ends its existence in devastating fashion.
Brilliant! The simply titled ‘Crows’ ends this monstrous album, all sixty-one
minutes of it, and it takes a slightly different approach to anything heard so
far, taking on a more chaotic approach in places. To its credit, the song does
offer up a mix of everything heard throughout all of the other songs and draws
the album to a close in brilliantly epic fashion. The pace is slowed down as
the song starts to draw to an end, the tension slowly building into a morose
atmosphere before another ferocious barrage of blast beats are unleashed upon
the listener which actually take you by surprise. Quite unexpected, but
sounding perfect and placed brilliantly. Once again, Vorh has produced another
master-class in stunning, atmospheric and truly brilliant black metal and
coming from one man makes it all the more impressive. If you enjoyed his debut
album, then ‘The True Cult Of The Earth’ is a cd you must hear. There’s no
faulting this album at all, that’s how good it really is. Seven epic tracks of
harsh, yet atmospheric black metal executed flawlessly and played with utter
conviction, its another Nordland album that very highly recommended.
8.5 out of 10
Band Page: Here
Buy It: Here
No comments:
Post a Comment