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Sõjaruun > Sõjaruun > Reviews
Sõjaruun - Sõjaruun

Once more to the pagan well - 60%

autothrall, November 5th, 2009

This is a debut EP from a trio of Estonians who play in multiple bands together (Urt, Tarm, and Gas aside from this one). There are three tracks present, and the style is a pagan black metal with some folk acoustic guitars and moody breakdowns.

"Teekond Hukatusse" begins in subtle acoustic and bass atmosphere before channeling the glorious melodic black metal riffs common to the pagan branch of this style. It later breaks into some acoustic guitars once more over a fast bass line, and then totally breaks into this sort of bluesy doom segment until the end. "Touske, Allmaailmaleegionid!" returns to the mid to fast paced melodic black, and remains this way throughout, but has a few pretty decent, catchy riffs. "Vooras Veri" is similar, but with another of their lush folk sections in the latter half of the song. Also this third track was my favorite on the EP, I enjoyed the opening riff, which reminded me of Borknagar for some reason though the vocals are different.

The production is demo quality, but really that's what this is. Just a sampling, and a reasonable enough one if you are a fan of this type of pagan black metal which emphasizes melody and emotion over brutality. There is nothing inherently negative to say about it, but the songs didn't catch my attention quite enough yet. All the potential is here for a successful band of this style, so we'll have to see what the future brings of them.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Sõjaruun - S/T - 75%

Phuling, April 16th, 2009

I’m not all that familiar with the Estonian metal scene, but from what I’ve heard it seems to be on the rise. And with the country’s proximity to Finland, Russia and Sweden (each with relatively strong black metal scenes) it’s no surprise. And the lads of Sõjaruun are/were also involved in both Urt and Tarm, coincidently probably the only other two Estonian black metal bands I had heard of previous to receiving this record. But it’s no surprise I hadn’t heard of Sõjaruun before, since this is their debut. The band itself names Bathory, Helrunar, Nagelfar and old Satyricon as influences, but there’s definitely more to it.

This is certainly melodic black metal, but not overly melodic. For instance no keyboards have been used, which leaves all melody work to the strings. And there is some quite interesting guitar riffing, albeit none that sticks with you for long periods of time. What sticks out the most is probably the highly audible bass sound, which gives the music a very rumbling aspect (surprisingly also adding much to the melodic aspect). All while the raspy voice carries with it a lot of harshness as well as brutality.

A melodic, atmospheric intro starts the MCD off, reminiscing of a lot of Månegarm material, mixing in acoustic guitars and nature samples. But the pagan black metal quickly sets in, and I feel instantly thrown back in time to the early days of Månegarm and Lord Belial. Rather fast-paced and wicked drumming, that keeps the energy at a high level and leaves your legs constantly stomping along. But the lads intertwine it all with short breakdowns of acoustic guitar work, adding to the pagan atmosphere of it all. "Võõras veri" is the track that sticks out the most since it’s mostly set at a much slower pace. And I can’t help but to close my eyes and nod along to the great bass work. But I can’t help but to find the two previous tracks highly addictive. And it’s a fine debut with extremely great use of melodic, acoustic passages. It’ll be very interesting to see how they can transfer this onto a fullength.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net