CoC : Vrankenvorde - Schlachtensang : Review

Vrankenvorde - _Schlachtensang_
(Blood Fire Death Productions, 2008)
by: Quentin Kalis (6 out of 10)

Advertising blurb is always good for a laugh, as labels and bands come up with ever more elaborate descriptions for sometimes very ordinary music. The line about a rose smelling just as sweet by that long dead bard frequently comes to mind, but I am left mystified by the description of Vrankenvorde as "pagan rock 'n' roll". Huh? There are no flutes, fiddles or whatever, and the first folk melody only emerges on the fourth track. OK, their (German) lyrics probably deal with the usual topics of the mjolnir wielders, but there is no rock 'n' roll here. At all. In any form. They perform black thrash, or thrash tinged black -- it doesn't really matter; either way, "pagan blackened thrash" doesn't sound as unique. The songs are rather ordinary and might have been a bit more listenable, if they had a better production to give it some oomph, but I doubt this would have made much difference to the rather stale riffs. There are numerous other underground pagan and Viking acts doing wonderful work, and there is little to recommend this, even to fans of the genre.

Contact: http://www.vrankenvorde.de

(article published 30/9/2008)