Year of release: 2021
Label: Inferna Profundus Records
Rating: 7 / 10
GRAVELAND is constantly releasing something, but we have not heard any truly new material from Darken since 2016, and I would not say that the songs on that split with NOKTURNAL MORTUM stood out for something good. In my opinion, Darken throughout the 21st century has been playing some kind of messy stuff with rare glimpses like the album “Fire Chariot of Destruction” or the wonderful collection “1050 Years of Pagan Cult”. “Hour of Ragnarok” is his first new album in 8 years. And I can confidently say that this is one of the best works of Darken. Not because the album is very cool, but because Darken has a lot of works but most of them aren't really good. At least the new disc has a rather distinct sound while not devoid of recognizable viscosity. Good for everyone, I guess. Rob and the invited musicians started to hit the notes, the mixing was also successful, without the wandering melodies that annoyed so much on previous GRAVELAND albums. Thanks to this, it became noticeable that the songs on the album are pretty strong. For once and for all, meaningfulness and a certain internal interconnection of fragments appeared in them. As usual, the music is moderately symphonic in nature; war horns and drums in the style of Basil Poledouris are as necessary for GRAVELAND as guitars. There are innovations - clean vocals and flute parts, for example. There were no lyrics in my promo version, however, judging by the names of the songs, everything here is committed to tradition, and that's good.
Perhaps I have nothing more to say. The album is just solid, as always a little suffocating but not boring. I think loyal fans of the pagan incarnation of GRAVELAND will be delighted, and I recommend the rest to try it carefully.
English (UK) 
Крыўская