119th part of the short reviews.
ÞRYMR – Saga of the North
Year: 2024
Label: Darkness Shall Rise Productions
Rating: 5 / 10
This is the solo project of the famous Norwegian musician Trym Thorson, the drummer of EMPEROR (also, ex-ZYKLON and ENSLAVED). Here, Trym plays a rather complex and cinematic Nordic ambient. The music turned out to be rich, high-quality and diverse, but it's really a cinematic music; a soundtrack for a movie that doesn't exist. It does not create events, but only voices them. Some people certainly like this approach, but I find it boring. The press release compares ÞRYMR with MORTIIS, but even on the first demo, MORTIIS has several times more meaning and depth, despite the primitiveness of the performance. Here, it's the other way around - a lot of ideas, but only hollowness inside.
SIN OF GOD – Blood Bound
Year: 2025
Label: Pest Records
Rating: 7,6 / 10
The second album of SIN OF GOD was one of the best Satanath Records releases ever for me. A little-known Hungarian technical death metal band suddenly demonstrated that it was almost as good as all the big names from the major labels. The fact that over the next 9 years SIN OF GOD did not sign on Willowtip or something surprises me greatly. On the fresh "Blood Bound", the band proves once again that they are going toe-to-toe with the major scene. High intensity, masterful performance, good songs - yes! But the thing that gave me the biggest pleasure was the pdf of the press release I received from the label. Instead of the vomitous bullshit about the "underground most well-kept secret" (FUCK OFF WITH THAT!!!!!!!!!!) or lies about ”stellar musicianship", it included: 1) detailed information about the album; 2) explanation of the meaning of each song and the concept of the album as a whole; 3) explanation of the meaning of the cover (too bad it's fuckin AI); 4) biography of the band; 5) three funny stories from its history. Isn't it great? That's how you make press releases!
ZMIJ – Zmij
Year: 2024
Label: Gladivs Records
Rating: 6,5 / 10
And now we have a project of the Slovaks from KRAJINY HMLY. It is quite difficult to write about it. This is a modern mystical metal that tries to disguise itself as the old one, but eventually gets stuck somewhere in the middle. Here you can find parallels with everything that comes to mind - from ancient Poles and other modern Slovaks to MAYHEM and TRIUMPH, GENUS. The music has a pleasant archaic sound, but there is not much expressiveness in it. The songs don't stick in the memory at all. One thing that stands out is a very unusual main vocal. It's all ”cleen" but deeply possessed. And no, it's not Attila, but rather some kind of angry old man full of religious madness. I'm saying this as a compliment. But the whole mini album leaves a double impression. It's like everything is working, but the effect is not that strong.
KRAJINY HMLY – Cez ostrie skál
Year: 2022
Label: Werewolf Promotion
Rating: 7,4 / 10
The last album of KRAJINY HMLY at the moment, which is well known to listeners from Belarus due to the fact that Werewolf Promotion releases have always been available here, primarily in Possession distro. Unlike the darker and more mysterious ZMIJ, in KRAJINY HMLY these guys play quite typical pagan metal from Central and Eastern Europe. And here I can't help but draw a parallel with STWORZ (with whom, by the way, KRAJINY HMLY made a split in 2023). While most pagan metal bands are pathologically incapable of any kind of development and continue to play the same ditties ad nauseam, STWORZ and KRAJINY HMLY squeeze everything possible out of this style. The music of these Slovaks is easy to digest, it's melodic and large in scale. It has rich lead guitar parts that almost never stop. The familiar ”Slavic-folk" riffing performed by KRAJINY HMLY sounds very adult. As in the case of STWORZ, KRAJINY HMLY's music is active and intense. The only thing I would like is more variety in compositions and vocals. Even aggressive backing vocals could give this music a huge punching power. Contact SALTUS for examples.
GOATS OF DOOM – INRI
Year: 2025
Label: Purity Through Fire
Rating: 6,5 / 10
Standard Finnish Black Metal with all the standard elements: rhythms that make you want to dance like a cossack, evil vocals, very high melodiousness (right on the level of all sorts of CHILDREN OF BODOMs and KALMAHs, if not metalcore), and imaginary diversity (when each track is very dynamic, as it takes a little bit from DARKTHRONE, a little bit from BATHORY, a little bit from DISSECTION, and a handful more from 15-20 bands, and in the end it turns out that you've already heard it all a hundred times in identical combinations). Thanks to its explosive energy, "INRI" does not let you get bored, but let's be honest: it will be forgotten as soon as the last note of the last song goes silent. And there's also a very nasty sound with a shitty “production". And all this strongly contradicts the formidable name "GOATS OF DOOM". These guys don't look serious.
