Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Tumulus/Hymns And Drges/Mock/Cold Winter/Hammerheart Records/1995 CD Split Album Review



This is a review of a split album between Germany's Tumulus and Norway's Mock which was released by Hammerheart Records in 1995 and we will start of the review with Tumulus from Germany that played a very atmospheric form of pagan/black/folk/death metal with their side being called "Hymns And Dirges".

Drums range from slow to mid paced drumming with not much in the way of fast playing or blast beats, while the keyboards bring a very dark atmospheric pagan feel to the music, as for the bass playing it has a very dark tone with riffs that follow the riffing that is coming out of the guitars and at times you can hear the musical instrument.

Rhythm guitars range from slow to mid paced riffing that combines black metal with doom metal while the lead guitars are very melodic and primitive sounding viking metal guitar leads, as for the acoustic guitars they use finger picking to bring a very dark and medieval feel to the music.

Vocals are a mixture of clean singing male and female vocals with some deep black/death metal growls being thrown in at times as well as a brief spoken word passage, while the lyrics cover Asataru and Germanic Mysticism, as for the production it has a very dark, raw and primitive sound to it.

In my opinion Tumulus where a very good viking/atmospheric/folk/black/death metal band and while this is  not a style that is usually covered by this zine I still feel this was a great band with the best music on this split and if you are a fan of this style, you should check out this band. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Smoke Of My Sacrifice" and "A Vikings Last Journey".

Now we will review Mock from Norway that played a very raw and primitive form of viking/black metal and their side of the split "Cold Winter".

Drums range range from slow, mid paced to fast drumming with some blast beats being thrown in at times, while the bass  playing has a very powerful tone with riffs that dominate throughout the recording, as for the synths they are only used on the last song to bring an epic and atmospheric feel to the music.

Rhythm guitars range from slow, mid paced to fast raw viking/black metal riffs while the lead guitars are very primitive sounding viking/black metal guitar leads.

Vocals are all high pitched black metal screams, while the lyrics cover Asataru thems, as for the production it has a very dark, raw and primitive sound to it.

In my opinion Mock where a very good raw viking/black metal band and if you are a fan of this style, you should check out this band. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Bonded by thy Blood" and "Northern Sins". RECOMMENDED.

In my opinion this was a great split album with 2 really great viking/black metal bands and I would recommend this album to all fans of this subgenre. RECOMMENDED BUY.

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/tumulus/6904
https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Mock/12311

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