Majestic and Flawless - "Dawn of Iron Blades" Review (100%)
Graveland are a black metal band formed in the suburbs of Wrocław in 1991. Their first full length Carpathian Wolves came out in 1994, and, having only released a pair of demos featuring some songs that ended up on the debut, it is safe to confirm that unlike their compatriots from Behemoth, Graveland are no "trendies" nor are they latecomer to a genre that had yet, in 1991, seen it's apex. But in 1994, the state of black metal was a bit different, and the scene itself was slowly descending into emo goth - via Satyricon, Enslaved and Watain - and random carnival music - via the war metal of Warkvlt, Belphegor, Marduk and Beherit - territory.
Dawn of the Iron Blades takes advantage of the power of hindsight to successfully fusion the works of Burzum, Bathory and Phantom against the more heavy metal derived melodies of Sentenced, Sacramentum and Dissection, bringing to life a potent record that is at times just as peculiar as the band’s name.
The album is very bass heavy but guitars retain their tone and pierce through the mix perfectly, especially during the early Neraines inspired leads, and note definition is retained very well with the vocals gliding perfectly on top. The bass, while still clearly audible and distinct, is nonetheless tucked into the guitar tone and usually sticks to the root notes in a minimalist backing role. The drums are in the slower Burzum style and follow the famous Filosofem beat that has come to define the more epic and minimalist aesthetics of the genre, though various different beats are also shown and the drummer is excellent at arranging the drums to follow the intensity of the riffs while adding some creative fills when given the space to do so.
The guitars have three modes that form the basis of these compositions, and that not-so-coincidentally correspond to Graveland's three main influences: Bathory, Burzum and Phantom. 1) The consonant Burzum melodies that are often harmonized in thirds or with one guitar playing a solo on top. 2) The dark tremolo picked riffs in the style of Phantom and Vermin that are often slowed down from the rhythm played by their original influences to show the majesty of the dark brooding harmonies. 3) The savage percussive minimalist of Bathory that deconstructs into almost ritualistic music.
You can see all these in effect in the very first track "Iron in the Fog".
The vocals start to show signs of modernity, as the unfortunate and sometimes distracting switching between high and low growls is often used, with the deep growls being a Warkvlt like grunt and the higher screams being similar to those of Quorthon, albeit slightly lower in pitch and with a more pronounced black metal rasp. As an ode to their influences, there are glimpses of Phantom's vocal style that appear, especially during the song "Immortal Bloodline".
Majestic and Flawless
Riff-wise, Graveland's note selection is identical to that of their influences and doesn't stray too far from them, except during a few variations on certain melodies that find the band successfully merging their influences into one masterful tribute to the very best of black metal bands - a Pantheon in which Graveland is rightfully included.
The melodies presented on this album could easily feature on the albums of their influences judged on quality, as the band understands the riffcraft behind works such as Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, Fallen Angel and Hammerheart to perfection, and are able to come up with their own ideas within the limitations set by those bands. They nimbly avoid the pitfalls that copycat bands - Demonecromancy and Archgoat, to name a few - fall into constantly.
They recognise, for example, that the "Phantom Metal" style is defined by unnatural barrages of dissonant riffs that flow effortlessly into open intervals and haunting minor melodies, thereby creating the dark and morbid atmospheres that define works like Memento Mori, Fallen Angel and even Divine Necromancy.
On "Crown Heroic My Departure" the band utilise an old Burzum trope that forms the center of this piece. Taking a motif and introducing it in a slower, more atmospheric form before shifting to a tremolo variation that then morphs into a power chord counter-motif, much more aggressive and violent, usually accompanied by synth leads to retain a semblance of narrative coherence from the chaos.
They also remember that the strength of such percussive music comes from the melody and not only from the heavily syncopated rhythms, allowing them to maintain character and to not fall into the trap of "groovy" rhythms or "catchy" music, a trend that has infected the black metal scene since at least 1994, getting consecutively worse each passing year. Graveland, fortunately, are above and beyond that.
One of the issues that plagues this album, and it's really something minor compared to everything Graveland does right, is the sheer number of ideas that are inserted into a song. Many of these ideas have incredible potential yet are never given the necessary times to properly progress, and listening to Dawn of the Iron Blades often feels that the band wants to make all the ideas fit into each and every song.
The result is that most compositions are leaning towards the ten minute mark, and they never feel old or repetitive thanks to the sheer number of excellent riffs that constantly grace the listener's ears.
And yet, sometimes it can be distracting.
The biggest culprit on this album is the song "To the North of Rubicon" which begins in Phantom mode and develops a single motif for over 2 minutes in such a jaw dropping manner that it could easily have featured on Withdrawal or Memento Mori before adding other motifs - at 2:20 and 4:15 notably - that just don't have the time to breathe before the composition comes to an end in an epic conclusion, with a theme related to the first Phantom inspired motif. The result is a simultaneously mind blowing and frustrating listen that does not conclude properly.
"Semper Fidelis" solves a lot of those issues with its triumphant and joyful opening that then leads fluidly into a consonant tremolo picked section that uses a similar yet more condensed motif that, like Phantom and pre-Filosofem Burzum, meets a counter motif before expanding that motif into other directions and adding other counter motifs, creating the narrative "riff maze" that makes Phantom's music so fascinating before finally exploding into an uplifting climax that is long enough to be felt before it reinstates a few of the previous melodies to then conclude on a pure heavy metal note of grandeur (at 7:07).
The album closer, "While I Ride with the Valkyries" forgoes the more percussive elements of Bathory in favour of a more fluid and narrative approach that works very well as it introduces the percussive elements right at the end for the climax, and then back to a Burzum-esque lead for the conclusion.
Graveland show mastery of three different styles and are great at merging them together to define their own style with borrowed tools. Very few bands can do this convincingly.
The music is incredibly complex, far beyond the complexity of each individual section and really opens up an obvious path for the continuation of black metal. "Iron in the Fog" finds the band fully exploring the possibilities that these motifs have given them and decide to use the narrative death metal arrangement to progress through them all in a much more aggressive and convincing method than if they had stuck to pure black metal phrasal repetition.
For Graveland, their ability to mix different schools of metal and force them into the melodic narrative format is the greatest ability and only on this track is it fully developed and executed as it opens so many possibilities for future black and death metal bands.
With Dawn of Iron Blades, Graveland have created the greatest Polish metal album of all time and, more importantly, have cemented themselves in black metal's Pantheon, standing shoulder to shoulder with their influences - Burzum, Phantom and Bathory - and alongside the Norwegian black metal greats.
Dawn of Iron Blades score: 100/100.
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