Blackened Viking Metal - "Following the Voice of Blood" Review (98%)

Graveland, the lethal and mystical band from the lethal and mystical Rob Darken, master and lord of almost everything that has been born in the kingdom of continental European black metal, was confronted in 1997 to one of the most important moments in the development of Graveland's music.

And not only Graveland's music - the black metal world, still primitive, wild and controlling, was going to experience changes, to mutate, to become more accurate, more epic and unhealthy than ever. Bearer of an intense musical seed, the master Darken wanted to enter in our souls, to corrupt them, to teach a nihilistic and poetic world, bloody and astral. But he had already done so with Thousand Swords and Carpathian Wolves, the two preceding Graveland albums...

Yes, after Graveland released the masterpiece that was Thousand Swords, the band was left with a big void to fill musically.

The album written to fill this void was Following the Voice of Blood. This album is often hailed as the very best of "Viking metal" - often ranked even higher than Bathory's Hammerheart and Twilight of the Gods - and recognised as influential for this reason, and while this isn't really any sort of departure from black metal, it is still a monumental album and representative of a transitional period for Graveland.

Musically, Following the Voice of Blood contains more tempo related extremes, being laden with both Bathory and Phantom influences, even more so than its predecessors albeit perhaps not as much as the legendary Dawn of Iron Blades. The songs are more militant, dealing more with war, battle, and death than "Satanism", Hell, and the other more mainstream Occult musings of early Bathory and other early pagan black metal bands.

Blackened Viking Metal

The, music itself, being more violent and less eerie than on Graveland's first two albums fits these lyrical themes well.

The appearance of Pan-European themes has yet to come into full fruition, with only some vague references to Celtic and Norse deities being found on this album, and even some Lord of the Rings references like early Burzum.

If "war metal" were an actual genre - as opposed to the carnival clown shitfest of bands like Warkvlt, Revenge and Belphegor - this album would be hailed as its roots. When one hears the second theme of "Raise the Swords", they cannot help but be charged with the fearsome energy of Þórr, Óðinn and Baldr.

The music is, in itself, rather simplistic, but every riff is powerful, and more importantly working coherently towards a shared narrative and melodic goal. The guitars are a brilliant mix of black metal atmosphere, death metal brutality, and heavy metal soloing.

We won't go over Graveland's riff influences as they've already been cited: Burzum, Bathory and Phantom, although there is a bit of old Darkthrone and even some Absurd to be found here and there.

It's the beginning of the blackened viking era with many remaining elements of the black metal. The quality of the music is the same as the previous album, but with some arrangements and sophistication, and the vocals are still fast and dirty.

If you are interested in black metal, even to the slightest, Following the Voice of Blood - along with almost all of Graveland's discography - is a necessity in your emporium of black metal records.

Following the Voice of Blood score: 98/100.

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