Vuohipaimen

Horna needs little introduction, as they are one of the most phenomenally evil and intense fucking black metal bands to ever erupt from the wooded depths of Finland. Alongside Barathrum and Impaled Nazarene, they represent the true elite from said scene, and have rarely if ever wavered.

Vuohipaimen translates to something like 'Goat Shepherd', an appropriate beast of a title for this venomous, Satanic short-player. "Aldebaranin Susi" is the centerpiece here, nearly five minutes of Corvus' sadistic snarling, tinny cymbals and simple beats which hunt alongside the wolven, ripping Hellhammer-inspired guitar lines of Shatraug and Infection. The other piece is a traditional tune, "Oi Kallis Kotimaa", set to the Horna method, but with more manly, traditional vocals.

This is one of the few kvlt bands whose rare releases are well worth the tracking down. Limited to 1000 hand printed copies, and if you were lucky enough to snag one of the first 100 you got a t-shirt. Fuck. Most of the unworthy, including myself, will just have to settle for the .mp3s. Still worth it though.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

First of all, I personally think that most of the stuff released by Horna before they changed vocalist (pre Viha ja Vikate) pretty much sucks. Though it's not that bad it, like so many other black metal bands, it can be decribed with words such as bland and vapid. But when Corvus (which I think the vocalist is called) enterted the band it suddenly got a lot more interesting.

The first song on Vuohipaimen, entiteled Aldebaranin Susi, continues in the vein of VJV (albeit somewhat faster) with heavy riff driven black metal.
It's simple music we're dealing with here with a few solid riffs fused togheter over a simple drum beat and (I presume) an inaudible bass. What really lifts the experience for me though is the great throaty screams of Corvus which fit extremly well and gets its due prominent place in the song and production.
I was a bit surprised when I realized, after listening to it a few times, that there's no double bass pummeling present which one might very well expect; it's exclusivly used in a little burst at the end of the song, but don't get me wrong, this is still a very brutal pice of music.

When I flipped the disc and played the other side for the first time I was quite surprised: Instead of finding a fast black metal song I found "Oi Kallis Kotimaa" with the added noted (Trad.) at the end of the title, which probably means that this is originally a folk tune. Yes, folk music, though you wont find any violins or harps, rest asured, only the traditional black metal instruments. The song itself is a pretty slow paced tune with a folky riff at it's core and there aren't any growls present, but deep (and quite raspy) singing something along the lines of Finntroll's former vocalist Katla.
I like folk music and folk inspired metal, so this is right up my alley; great stuff.