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Slechtvalk: A forlorn throne

23/08/10 || Altmer

All right, so it is time for a band from my homeland. My homeboys in Slechtvalk (Netherlandic for peregrine falcon) play a black metal style, infused with folk, and although it’d fit neatly on the Paganfest bill, it would only feature alongside the more BM-styled orchestras on that type of tour. Think Arkona, Dornenreich, that kind of thing. They could tour with a lineup like that and not be out of place. Their stage costumes look like Turisas. Kinda funny, but the music is less cheesy.

So what we have is pretty standard fare for the genre. You get your requisite tremolo riffs, a bunch of blastbeats, some groovier riffs that remind me a fuckload of Amon Amarth for some obscure reason (listen to the second track and tell me that’s not straight from the “With Oden on Our Side” album). Vocal stylings are mostly black metal rasps, with some clean vocals thrown in in a manner that brings to mind another band that loves forest black metal, namely enslaved. Here and there low growls appear reminiscent of a less enunciate Johan Hegg. There isn’t a lot of actual folk instruments in there, or the happy bullshit most of these bands pull off. There’s good, actual metal and some awesome riffing and that’s all you need.

A few acoustic passages crop up here and there, to serve as moody melancholic intros to the songs. My problem is not that they’re there (although, sigh, using something new would be appreciated) but that the clean vocals sound so… sterile and lifeless. If you’re gonna chant, don’t make it sound like you put it through a keyboard and let it drone like a vuvuzela. The clean chanted vocals don’t work in general and though they only appear sparsely, there’s no need since the low and high growls convey everything just fine.

The cover looks like a weird thing from Minas Morgul or a lich king from “Heroes III”. I suppose that is cool if you like fantasy stories like I used to. I used to be a “LOTR” nerd, you know. If you are a Lord of the Rings geek, this is your album down to the very core. The album is all about vikings and fantasy and medieval wars. That’s kinda brutal when you think about it. I mean, the vikings had axes and shit, right? These guys wanna look like that too. They wanna sing about it.

But, here’s the crux, they are Dutch. The Netherlands doesn’t have fucking vikings you guys, I mean seriously. Go to Norway. They had vikings there. But here? We had a few Germanic tribes. And a bunch of lost Romans. And Franks. And lots of slaves that we imported from Suriname in the seventeenth century. But we don’t have vikings, so this doesn’t really make a lot of sense in hindsight.

Not that vikings still aren’t cool, though. In fact, the atmosphere that this album sometimes does give off is that of viking ships sailing tempestuous seas. The rhythm of the drums beating away like the oars of the sea. They convey it in much the same way that AA would, just with more black metal in there. Some elements are a bit bombastic and written much in the same vein Turisas or Moonsorrow would use it – a bit too pretentious for some, but given the small doses it doesn’t up the “Braveheart” factor too much.

What makes this album truly tip the balance to the positive side, however, is the riffs. The guitars sound nice and meaty like I want them to sound. The riffs groove. This is how you do it and they deserve credit for making me want to bang my head to black metal alone. The interplay with the drums is also fantastic – the non-constant blasting ensures there is some tempo changes to wrap your mind around. I like how it’s black metal that doesn’t constantly sound like an aural mess. It combines atmosphere, lyrics, and rhythm into a coherent whole that is sorely missed in most of black metal.

And they get a bonus point, because they’re Dutch. Voel je gematst. Also, a cool thing: this album was actually label-sent. So some good shit does penetrate our ears every once in a while.

Recommendation: Nothing. Stay cool, and stay Dutch. Write more songs. Rape Christians. Wear swords and helmets. And stay away from our cheese!

Information
Released: 2010
Label: Whirlwind Records
Website: www.slechtvalk.com
Band
Shamgar: vocals, guitars
Ohtar: bass, vocals
Seraph: guitars
Premnath: keyboards
Grimbold: drums

Tracklist
01. Tamers of the Seas
02. Forsaken
03. Desolate
04. Divided By Malice
05. Allegiance
06. Enthroned
07. Bewailed
08. Towards The Dawn
09. Vengeance Of A Scorned King

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