Hail to the Fallen Majesty

I know more than a dozen bands named after Valhalla from all over the world. I have listened to almost all of them but the best one for me is THIS. As soon as I heard the album "Hail To The Fallen Majesty", I felt in love with the music of these guys from Petrozavodsk, the main city of the province of Karelia, a land located in the furthermost north of Russia.

The album is very well balanced, with no composition sounding as a burden. Each song, sung in proper English, brings a pinch of Slavic melancholy and that makes the style of "Valhalla" specific and unique. One can feel this yet in the opener entitled namely "Karelia" – a brief keyboard intro, both sad and epic, which makes us imagine snow battlefields and hundreds of ever-frozen lakes.

What follows are songs with a fast and a slower pace alternating with each other within. The most aggressive amongst is "Wings Of Hate", whilst the most wistful is "Requiem To The Stars". The things in common are the invariably combination between the perfectly played guitars and the deep hammond keyboards, and on the other hand – between clear and harsh vocals. It is exactly the keys that in fact form the melody in each song, often supported by adroit drums.

The cherry is "Wind", a brilliant song that has everything to call it masterpiece: originality, memorable melody, passion and ripeness. All mentioned "Valhalla" instrumentaruim engages in here. Harsh singing aggression is intervally followed by clear vocals developing into a tender whisper; distorted guitar riffs – by weeping classic strings bubbling like a brook . What is stand out are again the prolific keyboards as well as the drums as the latter's mighty staccato is really impressive. And again, all excellent technical skills of the musicians are as if in subjection of the main purpose – to make you immerse into the same sweet contemplating melancholy, pleasant like a warm embrace, while you eagerly listen and listen and listen the song.

So that's what is "Valhalla"... The only thing about them that is not quite clear to me is how to call their specific style? Tender sympho black metal? Is it such a style mark correct at all? Yes, as long as we're talking about these very talented guys from "Peter's factory" which in fact means Petrozavodsk. Buy their CD and try them. It is worth!