GRAVELAND – Cold Winter Blades CDEP review

GRAVELAND – Cold Winter Blades CDEP
No Colours Records

I must admit that I’m a fan of GRAVELAND aka: Rob Darken. I’ve always liked his music from his early raw BM days to what he’s progressed into now which some people like to call Epic or Pagan. I will say that it has never influenced me to run around in the woods behind my home wearing chain mail, a helmet and swinging a sword at imaginary invaders. I have a hard enough time when I’m running naked through the neighborhood being chased by professionals. GRAVELAND is just one of many Eastern European bands whose music has drawn me to them like lighting to a rod. Obviously not all of the BM bands from this area of the world have the same qualities. But the ones who forgo the knee-jerk Christian church hating and focus more on epic tales of folklore, pride in homeland plus inject heavy doses of atmosphere appeal to me. I’m not saying Darken wouldn’t mind seeing some churches burnt to the ground as his past works showed very well, but over the years he’s moved on from mere arson to better weapons and larger battlefields.

On this five song EP Darken, who’s still responsible for all the instruments, seems to be continuing where he left us on last year’s Spears of Heaven full length. Infact some of these cuts were previously left on the studio floor for just this moment. Call it cheap, lazy or maybe he had something else in mind. As far as the new material “In the Morning Mist” is blackened medieval ambience which relies heavily on the keyboards and choir chanting until Darken kicks open the monastery doors and a fog of filthy soot spreads out over everything. The drama of this little fracas goes back and forth for seven minutes with the choir sounds winning out in the end. Ouch that hurts! “From the Beginning of Time” follows in a similar vein although the sloppy drum beat gives it a Black & Roll feel inbetween the heavily used keyboard ambiance. “White Winged Hussary” is the most interesting of the older unused tracks from previous recording sessions. It starts out as a folk tune with a military like drum beat then gradually gets more epic with the added keys and choirs. Two minutes into it Darken turns the thing into a downtuned rock number with a subtle touch of post punk. This could be an incredible peak into the future of GRAVELAND. If Pest can do it why can’t Darken?

The last two cuts on here, “Spear of Wotan” and “Dance of Axes & Swords” are typical GRAVELAND with dirty riffs, eclectic drum patterns, background keys and choirs plus Darken’s dead man vocals. Liking GRAVELAND always comes with a price since many outsiders have simply written Darken off as some sort of Polish woodland loving fascist with a medieval wardrobe fetish. Musically I find his releases always surprising especially his EPs. Although I won’t be touching his latest split 7”er with KREUZFEUER.

www.no-colours-records.de/