![]() ![]() Baritone slavkin chanting commingle with guttural battle cries. “Fire by the Sword” introduces Buzilevich’s vocals - the most jarring element of the record. While keyboards have a well-documented place in metal, they should not come at the expense of earthy grit. ![]() Its sterile cleanness diminishes the cohesive impact of the songs, emphasizing plasticky replications of actual instruments. The final chord fades out abruptly and unnaturally, emphasizing the main issue with this album - the production. Although heavily layered, the song’s blistering solo work and double kick drum keep it memorably powerful. “Primary Rus” takes full advantage of this, with a walking keyboard string melody alternating with soaring guitar leads and tumbling drums. Glory to the Heroes has an emphasis on musicianship rather than lyrics and songwriting. Glory To the Heroes does not bring anything mind-blowing to the table, but will please fans of the genre and curious newcomers. With such an upfront stance, much hinges on Holy Blood’s music parallelling the strength of their faith. “Let God give you a chance, let Him open your soul.” “Not everything that we don’t understand immediately is a lie or a fairy tale,” Buzilevich said. In an interview on their website, frontman and mastermind Fedor Buzilevich claims to serve at his local church. Other than Slechtvalk from the Netherlands, Holy Blood stands as one of the only viking metal bands to gain recognition - and certainly the most vocal about their faith. ![]() Viking metal branches off from the black and folk metal umbrellas, embracing the imagery, aesthetic and musical callbacks to the pre-Christendom seafarer's culture. Even so, bands playing this extreme music for the Lord have emerged around the world - as exemplified by Ukraine’s Holy Blood’s brand of viking metal. Kickstarted by Norway’s Antestor and Australia’s Horde in the late 1990s, “unblack metal” experienced extreme backlash from the militant and violent satanists who helmed the original Scandinavian movement, dismissal from the secular music community and condemnation from mainstream Christianity. Of all the movements in religious music, Christian black metal takes the cake as the most unlikely. Originally and written and published by me for The Chimes ![]()
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