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Technically, Holy Blood isn't a pagan metal band. They're Christians, and Christians are convinced that paganism is wrong and that pagans will burn in Hell. So they're a Christian pagan metal band. Or something. Now that I've put that on the table, I'll tell you that from here on out I'm referring to them as a pagan metal band.

I'll be honest. I checked out this album so that I could scoff at it, laugh at it, and hate it. White metal? Gimme a fuckin break! I'm no Satanist (or a pagan, for that matter), but I just naturally assumed that this was a genre of music that Christians were pretty much left out of.

I hate to admit being wrong, but I was wrong. These guys kick ass. Or at least this album does.

On a par with early Moonsorrow and Nokturnal Mortem's album "Weltanschauung", this is some of the better pagan/heathen metal that I've ever heard. It opens, as so many pagan/viking songs do, with waves gently crashing on rocks or docks or something. Or dancing, as the title of the album suggests. A harpsichord or something gradually fades in and plays some soothing folk tune for awhile. Not bad at all. Music like this intermittently decorates songs throughout the album.

After this, we're treated to a very good mixture of folk instruments (primarily a flute) and creative, heavy, mid-to-high tempo guitars and blast beat drums. Choruses of low pitched, viking style "Heys" enhance the somewhat screechy vocals. There are quite a few catchy riffs on this album. Some songs are better than others of course, but I can't think of one song that sucks on this whole album.

My favorite is "Jerusalem", which begins with the flute and probably some female humming or something. But when it really kicks in it's fuckin awesome. Some kind of unique scale that the guitars play (the whole album is chock full of them) and the vocalist shrieking at the top of his lungs. I dunno what the hell he's howling about cos he's doing it in Russian, but it doesn't sound anything like what I'd think God would sound like if I thought God was what was going on.

Another favorite is the 8th track, "The Fair". Again, interesting scales played by both distorted guitars and a piano and probably something else. (I don't know a goddam thing about classical instruments) This song is far from predictable. It's straight up unique. But again, I'll loosely compare it to Moonsorrow's first 2 albums. I'm sure Moonsorrow would wanna kick my ass if they heard me say that but they don't know where I live.

Finally, I gotta give these guys props for being brave enough to play this style of music whilst espousing their religious beliefs to an audience of people who sometimes violently disagree with them. That takes guts.

So if you like black metal-influenced folk/pagan/viking metal and you're willing to open your mind a little bit and let somebody howl about something besides how much they hate Christians, I'll bet you'll find that you're giving this album a lot of airplay once you give it a chance.

I think one major error that many people I know make in describing Holy Blood's sound is describing it as black metal with folk influences. When listening to this album I find it is more of the other way around. The music is folk metal with black metal influence. The songs have that uplifting epic feeling of going into battle that bands like Thyrfing, Ensiferum, and Eluveitie thrive on.

The overall production is not too bad for an underground folk metal release. The guitars are sometimes lost in the flutes, pipes, and harps (which the band favors in creating their folk elements), but this is not a new concept in folk metal and doesn't take away too much from the album.

The vocals are generally high banshee-like shrieks, with the occasional chants in unison that is a common characteristic in folk metal (like Falkebach). The lyrics are Christian, but that is not a factor that bothers me, as the music is still fantastic. Beliefs should never be a deciding factor in a band's quality. I listen to some bands that are devoutly satanic, and some that are devoutly pagan, that doesn't make me a satanist or a pagan.

I recommend this album to those who are fans of the pagan/folk metal movement. If you favor more of the black metal realm in music, you may find yourself sorely disappointed, as this music is more focused on folk and uplifting battle elements, rather than the dark and depressing elements more commonly associated with black metal.

Overall this is a great album that I recommend to any pagan/folk metal enthusiast!

Every once in awhile, a band comes along that doesn’t necessarily do anything completely original, but executes their music with enough skill that they breathe new life into a genre that may be becoming stale. Holy Blood is one of those bands. This Ukrainian band plays folk-influenced melodic death metal, which isn’t an entirely new concept. But what sets Holy Blood apart is the fact that their brand of folk-metal has significantly greater doses of folk than most other bands in the genre. Even this CD, Waves Are Dancing, has a significantly greater amount of folk than their debut, The Wanderer.

The opening track of this album, for example, is a brief folk-guitar suite with a flute melody. It is capped with some calm water effects that sound like waves lapping against a shoreline – very calming.
Once the metal begins, though, the folk is not lost. On the second track, To Heaven, guitars and drums come crashing in, but a folk flute melody continues over top. Throughout the piece, the little folk motif is carried through the guitar lines or whenever the flute comes back in again. The Spring begins with a solo flute line which is then echoed by the guitars when the rest of the instruments come in. And Jerusalem features a folk-style choral intro, with short, percussive yells coming in later on.

A similar style is employed throughout the album, and usually quite effectively. The band has an ability to merge the folk melodies with their brand of melodic death metal seamlessly. The problem, however, is that the metal that they make is not anything new. They have pretty standard structure, basic rhythms, and similar harmonies throughout the entire album; the seventh song sounds conspicuously similar to the third. The similarities between the songs often make the majority of the album seem like different variations on the same song; however, it is a very good one song. But the album is broken up by the sixth track, which is almost entirely instrumental, and the eighth track, which is far more upbeat than the other songs. This adds some variety into the mix, along with the intro and outro acoustic folk pieces.

The production on the album is fantastic. All of the instruments are clear and distinguishable, but they still have a very dynamic feel as though the band recorded the album live.

This is a very good album by an obviously talented band. If you like straightforward melodic death metal, or if you’d like to hear a band pull off the folk-metal sound, pick up this album. It’s well-done and it accomplishes what it sets out to do. If, however, you are expecting a more progressive or experimental band, make sure you listen through the MP3s on the band’s website and see how you like them. If Holy Blood decided to push themselves creatively, they could truly be pioneers in the metal realm. As it stands, this album is essentially a great EP that was stretched into a full-length with a few all-too-similar songs.

Track picks:
To Heaven, The Spring, Jerusalem


Note:
The CD also contains a music video for the third song, The Spring. It mixes well-shot clips of the band walking through a forest, and live concert footage.

There's a such trend to listening the Russian bands in Poland lately, I wonder if the Ukrainian ones could get into this mode. I have known only Nokturnal Mortum until now when I listen to the second album of Holy Blood entitled "Waves Are Dancing". I'm afraid I didn't listen to the debut album made by these Ukrainian metalheads so I don't have any idea about the music it contains.
"Waves Are Dancing" lays in the crossroad of black metal and folk metal ways. There are blackish guitars and the shrieking vocal of Fedor Buzilevich. His voice is close to such Dani from COF squealing sometimes. So tempos are often fast and wild. But the keyboards' work, all these "pagan" choirs, female vocals and the folk tunes filling the songs in are rather from folk metal scene. These tracks has very great ornament, there are so many various tunes so it seems similar to Polish band Valinor. If you can remember other Polish black metal band Thy Worshiper you can hear these special melt of blasts, keyboards tunes and female vocals in "I Flow Towards The Fate" song. Thy Worshiper have performed such fat black metal filled with interesting atmosphere.
The flute using here is most original element in Holy Blood's music, he sound not only in intros or interludiums but there is equality among all the instruments. If just as the vocalist doesn't scream out his own lungs he blows the pipe. There are some acoustic, folk-like introductions in many tracks when the pipe works as well, but I can hear the flute tunes while black metal riffing. This black or maybe folk metal contains so nice fairytale-like atmosphere after all one look on the cover art will be enough to feel it. There is the atmosphere of war and battles in this sounds too.
The production of this album is a cardinal sin here, guitars are not loud enough, they are buzzing nor grinding. But you can hear some solos here; it is not very often in black metal e.g. there is such good solo part in the middle of "In The Last Battle". The production's faults are made up with good and interesting melodies. I think the Borknagar or Vintersorg fans who likes such folk influenced black metal could accept Holy Blood with any doubts. At the end of this review I must say the interesting thing that Holy Blood's lyrics are Christian influenced, they are not antichristian but they support Christianity! Maybe some dude want to say that black metal with Christian lyrics is not a black metal no more. I don't care about such opinions. Music is music, this is only sound and it is sounds like black metal I call it black metal. Any lyrics can't create any music, it depends on sound.