| CD REVIEW Harmony |
 |
|
Band: Holy Blood The Patriot is the third full length album by the Ukrainian warriors from Holy Blood, after The Wanderer (2002) and Waves Are Dancing (2004) (both of them were re-released in 2005 by their current label). The Wanderer stood for a folkish mixture of Black and Death Metal, while the second release was much more Folk-oriented than the debut. It’s mainly in this vein that The Patriot needs to been defined. This album was originally recorded in 2004-2005, during the Waves Are Dancing-recordings, yet it took another two years before the final mastering was done, and another year for the actual release. Holy Blood, with members of Oskord and Requital, bring about thirty four minutes of melodic Folk Metal with an enormous Black Metal-base. Besides the ‘usual’ instruments, Holy Blood make use of flute, female vocals and symphonic keyboards. Vocally, front man Fedor Buzilevich combines raw, somewhat high-pitched and sore blackish screams, some grunts, and melodic and / or harmonious and / or epic chants. Besides, keyboard player Vera Knyazeva (Fedor’s wife, by the way) adds some female vocals too. The songs are pretty varying and contain both blackish and folkloric parts. The heavier parts are sometimes very brutal and fast, others are more overwhelming and epic, and some are almost Doom-inspired. The Folk-pieces exhale a certain Slavonic atmosphere, which isn’t that unusual in East-Europe, of course. The whole has been performed with a decent dynamism and an organic drive. However, I sometimes get the feeling the band still needs to find its true identity. Anyway, this release (and same goes for the re-releases of both former albums) is highly recommendable to fans of Eluveitie, Aes Dana, Ensiferum, Kampfar, Falkenbach, Cruachan and Trollech. Interesting fact: this band is a Christian-inspired one (one of the very few I know from Ukraine), which can sometimes be seen within the lyrics. 81/100 Ivan Tibos. |