SKYFORGER – Kurbads CD
Metal Blade Records
After so many years hunkered down in the cult status regions of extreme metal this Latvian institution has decided to release something more mainstream. Yeah they’re still buried in the Pagan Folk metal genre but gone is the blackened aspects of their older releases. This new one stands along side other genre notables like ENSIFERUM, ELUVEITIE and FINNTROLL. The songs now are more thrash oriented with galloping rhythms worthy of starting a pit to. Hopefully some loser with one of those plastic Halloween Viking helmets jumps in then you can bash the shit out of em. Actually I kinda like this release as it stands up well to contemporary releases by the previously named bands. Hey look it has been seven years since SKYFORGER released some new material and their last one was all folk music. In that time you’ve had battle metal become commercially successful. The Paganfest is a perfect example. So if these guys wanna play to a friendly crowd, sell a few t-shirts and maybe a few of their older releases it’s fine by me.
Unfortunately I’ve read a few bad reviews for this release by some so-called “older fans”. Yeah well I’m old enough to have fathered some of those “older fans” so I’m not gonna let their whiney opinions bother me and nor should you. Unless you were a truly hip third grader in 1998 then I’d drop the “older fan” shtick. Fact is that here we have a decent sounding batch of catchy classic metal/thrash with folk snippets which many people might just find accessible. Plus it’s on Metal Blade so you know it will be in stores. Now for some people hiding in their parent’s basement clutching their copies of Latvieou Strclnieki (Latvian Riflemen) which they downloaded for free, this is sacrilege. Well fuck you ya dumb pieces of shit. It must really suck to be jaded at such a young age in order to look cool and impress people who don’t know that you’re parents still buy all of your clothes. Wow five listens into this dink and I’m opining. But I digress.
Kurbads is essentially a concept album about this mythical hero who is like a Latvian version of Shazam. Yeah try looking him up in your Nordic Gods handbooks, assholes. Anyway as far as the concept goes I don’t give a flying fuck. I am a huge fan of Pagan Folk Metal and some bands do draw you into an imaginary place where the myths take shape and have meaning. Other times it’s just great background music for a fuckin party, that’s if you’re old enough to drink and I’m not talking about that store bought mead kiddies. This new SKYFORGER is part of the latter and in my not so humble opinion it’s better musically then what many of their contemporaries have released.
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