Твердь

Hailing from Russia, it’s fairly easy to say Pagan Reign is pretty much the essence of what folk metal should be like. Singing about Slavic pride and heritage but not crossing over to annoying faggy NS bullshit, they capture the spirit of “folk” metal; combining epic as hell folk melodies, mixed with utter harshness brought in my the aggressive guitar work, drumming and vocals. This is almost like a mix of similar bands like Thyrfing, Nomans Land, and a bit of Korpiklaani and Turisas thrown in.

All of this helps to create quite an epic and harsh atmosphere, right from the intro it settles you down calmly and leads you to believe you’ll have a relaxing tune with acoustic picking, sounds of birds and such and a flute all mixing for some relaxing folksy music, then right away with Guardians of Heaven it leads up with some super fast riffing and blast beats getting the head moving and twists and turns all throughout the album with a nice groovy jig type feel almost with the folk instruments and guitar riff. The vocals are similar to Swedish folk/Viking metal band Thyrfing, very raspy but can also be quite melodic in nature. This is the perfect type song to set up the rest of the album, Tverd which means Ancient Fortress, and leads you to have an idea of what’s in store.

The rest of the album continues in a similar fashion with nice pure folk elements brought in; the flute continues to be a very important instrument, as it should with nice interludes of calming music in between the harshness of the metal. The harsh raspy vocalist does a nice job being a great black metal impersonator but it still all fits nicely sounding a lot like what you would expect in a Slavic folk metal band. The musicianship on this album is also competent and what it should be for a metal band; the guitars are very melodic but vary nicely from harsh fast riffs to very melodic and noticeable lead work and the drumming is solid and tight with just as much diversity ranging from hyper fast blast beats to nice grooving tempos. All this mixes for some very fun moments like in Ancient Fortress The Last Battle Part II about halfway through is an awesome jig type melody that just makes you want to headbang and dance with a hot lass at the same time.

The rest of the album finishes off in a solid and similar fashion without changing much in diversity; which is a problem for most bands, but with a powerful combination of sounds that Pagan Reign has it works and keeps you entertained for the remainder of the album. By Fire and Sword is a highlight being one of the most upbeat songs on here featuring a nice flute melody throughout and awesome headbangable riffs. The faster songs on here are obviously the best like the absolute best song being Novgorodian Folk Dance with an awesome opening solo and ensuing folk melodic carnage that follows. A wonderfully fun and entertaining instrumental song that has some impressive lead guitar work and soloing all mixed with the best flute melodies make for the perfect folk song.

The only downside to Tverd that I can find is the lack of diversity in song structure; they stick to one formula of creating harsh and aggressive metal tracks yet mixed perfectly with folk tunes to make a song, which is how most songs on this album go with, starting off nice and calm with flute and keys then leads straight into the metal part of the song with fast riffs and blast beats then goes into a short folk interlude then back. Sometimes it's different and has a perfect blend and it works, other times it just seems to be more of the same. This isn't a huge complaint because most songs with this structure seem to work and pass with flying colors for being very enjoyable, but after a while it does seem to pass as being more of the same and formulaic or just plain skipworthy for the better tracks.

Pagan Reign have created a very fun and enjoyable album with Tverd, having captured the true essence of folk metal it seems, without swaying and becoming mainstream and popular somehow; these guys aren’t well known but should be. Tverd is a highly entertaining melodic yet harsh folk metal album with some awesome moments. It’s nothing too original and out of the ordinary, but it has the perfect atmosphere for keeping you entertained and coming back for more which is what metal albums need especially when it’s folk metal and Pagan Reign know what they are doing in that sense. It’s nice to see that some folk metal bands know exactly how to create a true folk metal album. I’ll be listening to Novgorodian Folk Dance for quite some time and jigging and headbanging around!

Pagan Reign’s fourth album ‘’Tverd’’ is definitely an epitome to what we call folk metal. The Russian band sounds mature than ever before and the proud compositions
pour out from the monitors like mighty steamrollers. Great heavy clean production
emphasizes the well-made loud guitar riffs, interesting percussions and fast drums rotating crazy rhythms beautiful mixed with authentic folk instruments. The orchestration of the album is fantastic and that makes the Russian’s to sound like big band. Pagan Reign’s site: The main theme of the album is the Ancient Pagan Fortress, or "Tverd" in old slavonic language, as a material Stronghold of slavonic spirit and invincible firmness of people who not only successfully resisted continuous aggression of nomadic hordes from the South-East and teutonic tribes from the North-West, but also managed to create its great realm called Rus'.


The Svarog's Light will shine again in our Lands: Slow native mainly with mandoline and flute dreamy introduction. [very good]
Guardians of Heaven: The fastest and aggressive track, well-made attacking guitar riffs and rotating melodies, vocals from Hell, great pipe finishing. [excellent]
Ancient Fortress - Enemy at the Gate (Part I): The track that shows the synthetic maturity of the band. Aggressive vocals mixed with mid-tempo beautiful folk melodies – balanced leading flutes and pipes do the guitars accompany. [brilliant]
Ancient Fortress - The last battle (Part II): The second part heavier than the first part unfailing acoustic parts epic mood and the slavonic pagan band remembers the first albums with some black metal grunts. [brilliant]
By Fire and Sword: One of the best tracks here, dreamy, atmospheric, epic, aggressive, proud with spoken words over the pipe melodies-this is folk metal. [brilliant]
Back To Ancient Times: A classic melodic folk metal tune, probably the album’s weakest track of novelty so the game saves a fantastic finishing with pipes and a lovely solo before the grunts. [very good]
Slavonic Arise: Probably one of the best epic folk metal songs ever written. Excellent orchestration, loud vocals, fantastic heavy guitar melodies, the first time who leads the bass on some parts of the song and the protagonists of the cause pipes, flutes, reeds, domra, mandoline and authentic percussion instruments.Hail! [greatest]
Rarog: Another epic hymn from the battlefield with some paint the town red melodies, crazy rhythms and a battle at the end with swords and neighing horses. [excellent]
Novgorodian Folk Dance: A crazy instrumental track who leading the guitars and all the instruments at line from mandoline to flute takes the solo lead. Clue: the song starts with a cackling of a rooster. [excellent]
Light Of The Sun: This track somehow reminds me of Swedish death metal style in the way of Dark Tranquillity and In Flames instructed. As the track roll we return to Pagan’s Reign pagan style with a beautiful flute lead. [excellent]
With the power of fallen heroes - Honour of the native land: An excellent acoustic instrumental – mournful and proud simultaneous [brilliant]