CoC : Falkenbach - ...magni blandinn ok megintiri... : Review

Falkenbach - _...magni blandinn ok megintiri..._
(Napalm, 1997)
by: Drew Snow (8 out of 10)

Everyone's favorite merchant of Viking-rock is back, as Falkenbach have released another album, this time on new label Napalm Records. Not much has changed since the last time around, as German all-star Vratyas Vakyas once again handles all the instrumentation, producing a walking-paced, musically elementary sound mixing elements of black metal and northern European folk music. Adorned by a strong keyboard presence and occasional use of flute, _mbom_ (don't even ask what the name of the album means) rocks along with a little less influence from the black metal side of things this time around, with Vakyas' unwavering, almost monotone clean vocals taking the leading role, and with the raspy offerings being a little more polished and a bit sharper, definitely not as hollow and reverbed as the debut. Mid-paced, simplistic, keyboard folk metal is the name of the game on this album, a welcome change indeed from the sizeable portions of black metal mediocrity we've been subjected to lately. As mentioned, Vakyas is the main man in Falkenbach, and as such is responsible for the handling of all the instruments, resulting in a watered down presentation of each. But for this type of music, musical virtuosity is not a prerequisite anyway, and Vakyas shows that he is perfectly adept at everything, proving once again that creativity and composition are where it's at. Of course, Vakyas is no compositional genius either, as evidenced in the fact that most of the songs on the album are just downright repetitive as hell; most consist of a basic "a" and "b" section, repeated ad infinitum, without much in the way of variation. Unfortunate as this is, _mbom_ is still an impressive album, providing a rocking folk alternative to the majority of musical drudgery flooding the scene nowadays.

(article published 5/2/1997)

CHATS
4/19/2011	J Carbon	Falkenbach: ...Where His Ravens Fly...
9/1/1998	A Wasylyk	Falkenbach: The Vikings' True Voice

ALBUMS
2/6/2011	J Carbon	7.5	Falkenbach - Tiurida
5/27/2004	Q Kalis	8	Falkenbach - Ok Nefna Tysvar Ty
4/9/1997	D Schinzel	7	Falkenbach - En their medh riki fara