Thunder of War

SLECHTVALK is a band with a very elusive name. Their name not only eludes the English-conditioned tongue, it also evades the eyes with a root-like, hieroglyphic logo. One thing rings true for a band with an unreadable logo, most of the time they offer quality European black metal. SLECHTVALK has enough diversity to be termed something other than black metal, although their music has enough black metal parts. Like Norway’s ENSLAVED, who also include enough black metal parts to be classified in that genre, a more fitting term is Viking metal.

Viking metal, as ENSLAVED front man Kjellson might describe it, is a form of metal that incorporates many styles of music to create a type of music consistent with the wild nature, heroic actions, and pagan beliefs of the Norse. Because SLECHTVALK hails from Holland, Germanic war metal is a more appropriate tag. Whatever you choose to call it, Thunder of War is a quality European metal album. With the opening track “Thunder of War,” SLECHTVALK hits the fortress in full stride, blasting away with battle-ramming drums and high-pitch black metal riffs, ala NAGLFAR. Speed takes a break for clean, bard-like male vocals and operatic female vocal choruses played to the tune of a valiant guitar and drum gallop. These cleanly-sung vocal parts conjure up images of minstrels traveling the countryside singing epic tales of heroism. The next track begins with an upbeat piano passage, which leads the way for more blasting black metal. Again, the Dutch band slows down in favor for more epic choruses.

With Thunder of War, SLECHTVALK has issued a release with fantastic material for fans of the black metal and the melodic death metal genres. If you are a fan of role-playing games and/or fantasy literature and have not checked out this type of music, this band is a good place to start. Fans of FORLORN, ENSLAVED, OLD MAN’S CHILD, and NAGLFAR really should latch onto this band. This release is better than the 60 % rating that was given, but with only four medium-length songs, most of them being from other releases, it is hard to warrant a higher rating.

originally published on thegauntlet.com