V rachotu hromů

With my introduction to Trollech being their music video for “Ve Stínu Starých Dubů,” I gotta say that its very difficult to take anything this band does seriously. The band pictures here on the archives don’t help that much either, though behind the image is berserk black metal for forest dwellers around the world. The guitar tone is muddy and dark – tremolo picked most of the time and, if not, wretched and melodic. The atmosphere is tenuous, but music manages to flow naturally with some sweet bastard riffs owing up to thrash. For pagan black metal, there really isn’t a whole lot of invigorating themes or moods. I’d expect to feel like I’m in a forest (Odal (Ger)) or surrounded by nature in some other way (Drudkh). Sometimes I get the feeling, but most of the time I’m left in the studio.

Drumming combos work nicely with the riffs, spewing out catchy patterns and a ton of pillow-smacking double bass. It’s a drum machine, but it works well for the music at hand. Some people may get annoyed, but it doesn’t sound too triggered or clicky like other drum machines. Vocals are a combination, as well; Aura and Morbivod handle the vocals and both sound pretty alike. Asura does the main ones, but when Morbivod does his you can barely tell the difference. Morbivod does vocals for a decent amount of projects and I find his vocals more shrieky, but Asura’s work for the music; they’re lighter shrieks (throaty toad talking sometimes, too). The production isn’t raw at all so they both are clear, along with all the instruments.

A problem that I see many bands running into is just boring us to death. This band can definitely churn out some grimy songs, but there isn’t any emotion in them (except the last track). Since there’s also very little atmosphere, the formula works against the band. Only the final track, “Ve Stínu Starých Dubů,” gallops with its harmonized lead through forests unopposed. They’ve honed their rhythm down, but is there not more they could have done to charm the listener? The last thirty seconds of the song begs this question – it’s the most enthralling moment on the album that lures you into wanting more.

Where was that for the whole album? They made black metal without any backing to it; production was neutral, everything was clear, atmosphere was deficient – it was a recipe to make only a decent album that doesn’t have anything else to offer. I didn’t find myself connecting with any of these tracks or really getting into them (aside from the last track), and that’s not good enough to keep it around in my neck of the woods.

I really wanted to like this band- I loved their band photos, their website, the concept of playing aggressive black metal without being overtly misanthropic; it all seemed fairly original and impresive that they had clearly taken alot of time to generate a concept and specific atmosphere for their band. However, after what started out as a promising first minute on the first track of "V Rachotu Hromu" soon developed into a very boring and bland effort.

For one, and probably my biggest complaint, is the whole "programmed drums" controversy...although I do applaud Trollech for clearly spending alot of time and effort on their programmed drums (if you weren't listening closely you almost wouldn't be able to tell they had programmed drums), they still got on my nerves within a matter of seconds...the bass drums actually sounded pretty good and real, however, the snare and symbols were too quiet and polite-sounding, which didn't exactly match up with the aggressive double bass that was present throughout the entire album.

Something else I found irritating was how inaudible the bass was...it's one thing if a black metal band is attempting to create a "raw-sounding" album with terrible production quality for the sake of the atmosphere, but as far as this album went, the production quality wasn't too bad, as the guitars and the vocals are mixed adequately (which isn't really saying a whole lot, nothing on this album sounded THAT good). Therefore, the bass should have been mixed adequately as well, which it wasn't.

The harsh vocals, though mixed decently (although it wouldn't have hurt for them to be a little bit louder), were still pretty bland, sounding either like a less harsh Knjaz Varggoth from Nokturnal Mortum, or like a croakier Abbath from Immortal. To their credit, they do try to mix it up a bit with clean vocals from time to time, but sadly, the clean vocals just aren't very good and just make the album goofier...

Something I found particularly confusing was the mood that Trollech were trying to create on the album...the songs are played aggressively, but aren't especially mean or evil-sounding, nor are they happy and glorious, nor are they melancholic or majestic or even epic. The riffs are just kind of there, as is everything else on the album.

Like I said before, I think they might have been onto something with the first minute of the first track, but other than that, as much as I wanted to like this album, I found it boring and uninspiring, and I don’t have any of their other releases, but I’m curious as to if their sound has changed or evolved in any way since this release. Although I recommend checking out the band’s website (especially the band photos, which are pretty amusing), I really can’t recommend this album.