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Andras > ...of Old Wisdom > Reviews
Andras - ...of Old Wisdom

Great change of style to finest pagan metal! - 90%

dimiarch, February 9th, 2008

Originally written for Greek magazine "Frost" issue #3.

A new cd from Andras, a band that was silent for many years (more than five) and I thought they were split-up. I never before paid any attention in this german band, since the few listenings from their previous works disappointed me. But this time!!!! At first I thought it was a different band with the same name, but then… the logo was the same! Andras was always a raw (more than needed in their type of music) epic satanic black metal band, that had a “name” in the underground, and their albums were of poor sound and almost funny vocals.

In their new work, they seem totally renewed, with a big change in their sound. Many melodies, many clean vocals (reminding a lot of Vintersorg), lots of keyboards and above all very nice songs. The lyrical theme is also changed into epic heathen subjects. A great surprise for me, beautiful epic majestic melodic black metal, from the most unexpected band. Fully recommended in this genre. To be honest, now I also find more interesting their older works, maybe cause I devoted more time on them…

Wisdom to know how to do this style right ... - 84%

BloodIronBeer, January 27th, 2007

I don’t know how I was referred to this band, or if I was referred to this band at all, but I’m glad I found them.

A whole lot of Vintersorg going on here in the vocal department. This guy's voice is a complete, identical copy of Vintersorg's voice when singing. I kid you not, I had to check to see if this was Vintersorg singing on this album, just to confirm. Nope - just a guy who does a really great job at mimicking him. There are also growls, screams and a harsh type of singing - very versatile. A pretty damn talented vocalist, regardless of the Vintersorg cloning.

This is labeled as simply "black metal", yet I'd be hard pressed to ignore the symphonics in the front of the music. Between the abundance of other instruments via keyboards, plus the growls coupled with a melodic death metal guitar tone I'd have to label this as symphonic death/black metal. That, for starters would give you a much better impression of what you're in for. You could even add "Viking" in there, because he does occasional sing about "Viking warriors" and it does have a sense of Viking heroics at parts. The song Pillory, for example is pure Viking metal.

Rather than lead guitars, Andras puts the keyboards out front more of the time. There are a few keyboard driven interludes which spew vast dark atmosphere. They do something to the same effect in the rest of the normal songs. From sharp spacey lead parts, to symphonic instruments (quite a bit of brass instruments implemented), the keyboards may be slightly overpowering at time, but more often than not very welcome in the music.

Stylistically, Andras takes a genre normally watered down, boring, and unable to divert from the path that the bigger acts (Vintersorg or ... Dimmu Borgir *cringe*) make for them. I am definitely ill-disposed to Dumbo Burger, and their many clones but there is none of that which I dislike in those bands here. No spotless, clean, fake sounding production. No pointless attempts at bombastic epics. No weak monotonous vocals. Andras alters the recipe to their own taste, spicing it up with unexpected flavors of Viking metal, and melodic death metal (note: not the worthless “Gothenburg“ type of melodic death metal). Not to mention the absence of the horrible drum sound on most of Vintersorg and Borknagar.

Of course, also unlike Dimmu Borgir, they manage to keep their black metal parts um ... actually black metal. At the same time though, this isn’t Moonblood quality either. Production-wise that is. So basically, it falls right in the middle of the totally pristine, mainstream quality and the almost unlistenable quality of some cult black metal. Not that I don’t like Moonblood, but that sort of production would not carry this style at all.

I must say, though, that the first listen of this led me only to write this off as a Vintersorg clone. But it is more than that. In fact, even though I’m sure most won’t agree, I think this is superior. Yep, I’d take this over Vintersorg any day.

Pros: An odd mix of genres and influences, good production, great atmosphere, the song The Pillory ...

Cons: The Vintersorg comparison, falls off a bit towards the end ...

I recommend this to fans of black, symphonic or Viking metal.