Old Wainds are slowly making their mark in the recent black metal scene. Everything they have released is superb, and their magic started here with “Religion of Spiritual Violence”, a fresh breathe in the dwindling sea of modern black metal acts.
First off, let me start by saying that every song here is fantastic. The riffs are amazing and well written. One of the coldest albums I’ve heard in a long time, but it has it’s own character to it that isn’t even matched by the band themselves.
One of the numerous things about Old Wainds that I’ve always admired is that the same line-up has released all three of their full-length albums. The drummer Izbor has also been featured on every full-length even though he is listed as a “session” drummer. The drums are a fury of blast beats and mid-tempo beats to back up the riffs.
Hauciem, as he was known during the release of this album (now known as Morok), has a great black metal voice. No echo or reverb like on the old Darkthrone releases, but he definitely has a cold feeling in his voice and the Russian accent is evident. It is evident that this album is not made in Norway, but in the cold northern Russian fields. It wouldn’t be erroneous to say that this music creates a fine image in the listeners head of where it was created. Cold blistering riffs flow through one another in a fashion that I have not seen in any other band I’ve heard.
If this album is repressed in the future, and has a little better distribution the second time around, I don’t see why any black metal fan wouldn’t choose this work of art over the more popular and well-known bands of today. This album is for those who are looking for a breath of fresh air in black metal. It never gets old. True frostbitten and hateful music that will not disappoint anyone. This is truly an amazing band which released a modern classic that people who haven’t heard it should take more notice of. I could not speak of this album in any higher regard!
I'm not quite sure what an Old Waind is but I'm pretty sure its a synonym for good, becuase thats what this band is, good.
This album is raw, fast, and good. Double bass is a constant and there seems to be a lot of fast guitar riffs. The production is bad but I have heard worse, the guitar and drums are audible but the bass is hard to hear. Though the vocals can be heard well. The album seems a little repetitive because the drums seem to be the same double bass through out the whole abulm, and there seems to be about 3 styles of riffing for the guitars.
My favorite tracks are probably Portals of Winter Holocaust, Religon of Spiritual Violence, Unholy Nordic Metal and The Apogee of Prosperity. Those were the songs that stood out the most.
In Conclusion, this album would make a good contribution to your collection but I beleive it is hard to find. The album is very melodic too, so if you like melodic black metal then this is an album for you.