VINDLAND - Hanter Savet
Label - Black Lions Productions
Released - 2016
If you would have told me in January that in December the one black metal release on almost everyone's end of year best of lists (everyone with good taste that is) would be by a little known band from France who could just as well be a WINDIR tribute act, I would of said "In 2016? Yeah sure". Yes I am serious because after all of these years, especially listening to and watching all the craziness in the black metal scene, nothing really surprises me much. Think about it, here you have a band that put out a demo in 2007 and an obscure seven song self released ep, Ancestors' Age, in 2009 (which no one knew about, don't bullshit me) and puts out a full length in 2016 that sounds exactly like a beloved Norwegian, albeit second tier, black metal act. Hell five years ago genre enthusiasts would be screaming "FALSE"! But nowadays this band's been getting a million keystrokes of praise. Go figure?
As always let me be brutally honest with you. After listening to Hanter Savet a few times I pulled out my copies of WINDIR's Likferd and 1184 (yeah I know I'm not a completest go ahead call me names, fuck you) Next I started playing them together to see how close a comparison between the two bands was. Yeah well after a while I got confused. Has anyone asked VREID what they think? So let's just cut to the chase. VINDLAND's Hanter Savet is an absolutely beautiful sounding release. It's melodic black metal with such a rich tone that carries you along. And sure let's just toss out all the cliches shall we? It's epic, it's majestic sounding, I can feel my pagan blood rushing through my veins. Well not really I was born in New Jersey but you get the idea.
Supposedly band mainman, Camille Lepallec, spent four years writing/working on Hanter Savet. That's obvious just by listening to the well balanced amount of melodic riffs versus the exquisite harmonies. The way the time signatures simply flow with their changes without being jolted out of your seat. The subtle allowance of lead guitar work as if it were decorations to complement instead of mandatory requirements. Musically that's the basic draw to this style of black metal. As far as the vocals go, they're what I like to call "real guy harsh" touched with the various emotional throes of triumph and sadness. There's plenty of ambient (atmospheric dude) intros, outros and in song segues to give you time to pause and reflect or in my case go to the toilet.
Yeah Hanter Savet follows the whole blackened pagan/folk genre to the hilt. I have no qualms about that since I'm a genre fan. Also I'm not going into discussing the individual cuts. Releases like this are best looked upon as a body of work much like a classical piece of music as opposed to a collection of songs, which there are nine with only one I'd consider long at eleven minutes plus. Nor am I impressed or jaded enough to care that the lyrics are sung in Breton which is a language from the VINDLAND's home in Britianny, France. Let's be honest, 90% of black metal vocals are a mix of rasps, howls, wails and grunts. If it weren't for lyric sheets you wouldn't know whatafuck they were singing about.
Perfection is a rarity in my book and in metal music so Hanter Savet does have a few scratches upon it's pristine surface. After repeated plays things get monotonous and that wandering off feeling turns to nap time. I found folding laundry while this played to be a fitting chore. Sorry there's no ice giants or trolls in the back woods for me to slay anymore not since the woods were torn down and replaced by a high end housing project. Be that as it may Hanter Savet is a great release. Is it a tribute to Valfar of WINDIR, did his spirit inspire VINDLAND to continue on with his musical legacy (because VREID sure as hell didn't) or is it simply a very well done cloning of WINDIR? For now I don't know that answer and I wouldn't trust any metal media scribe who believes they do. I'll just place this in my own list of 2016's best.
Rating: 5/5
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