«The Graveland song is the longest track here by a considerable amount of time and it\u2019s quite epic, as is usually the case for newer Graveland. While it\u2019s kind of repetitive it\u2019s not at all boring\u2026sure you need a minimum amount of patience to listen to it but its well worth it. This song successfully represents what Rob Darken\u2019s been writing these last few years and really contains all the elements of new Graveland\u2026the same old Wotan-inspired Viking metal with bombastic drumming. It\u2019s a good track although only the third best on this split.<\/p>\n
Secondly, we have the contribution from Ukraine\u2019s finest, Nokturnal Mortum. This track is Kolyada, a re-recording of the sixth song from the band\u2019s first album, Goat Horns. The re-recording is considerably more fast-paced and intense, with an obviously better production than the original version on Goat Horns. The band\u2019s performance here really leads me to believe that their musical talents with their instruments have greatly improved even though their songwriting has somewhat deteriorated (I still like the new stuff a lot, but it doesn\u2019t come close to the classics Lunar Poetry and Goat Horns). Overall I must say that I love this song and that it\u2019s even better than the original version and that I\u2019d very much like to hear some other re-recorded tracks from Nokturnal Mortum\u2019s oldest albums.<\/p>\n
After the amazing Kolyada, however, comes North\u2019s song. Now it might be because I\u2019m not a fan of the band nor did I know them prior to listening to this split, but this song is by far the weakest on the album. It\u2019s relatively decent I guess, but it\u2019s just so damn unoriginal. Each time I listen to this it makes me think of a bad imitation of Astrofaes and it\u2019s really just another \u2018standard\u2019 fast-paced black metal song that goes nowhere and I basically always skip it. It\u2019s also inconsistent, as the other 3 songs (and bands for that matter) are very inspired by folk music and this is basically a folk black metal split more than a pure black metal split so To Break A Cross To Break A Leg doesn\u2019t really fit very well here.<\/p>\n
Finally we have the crowning jewel of this split, a re-recording of Temnozor\u2019s song Did-Dub-Snop off their very first album: Sorcery is Strengthening the Black Glory of Rus’. I\u2019ve heard the original version a few times a long time ago but I don\u2019t remember much except that I liked it a lot. So while I can\u2019t compare it to the original I must say that this song on here is truly amazing and the best among the four here. It\u2019s undoubtedly an improvement in the production department though. From the incredible intro to the amazing riffs near the end, this song is flawless and I keep listening to it about 20 times a day each day since I\u2019ve gotten this split.<\/p>\n
So I definitely recommend fans of Nokturnal Mortum, Temnozor and Graveland to get this as it\u2019s excellent and I recommend it to anyone who likes black metal and folk metal as it\u2019s a great introduction to those 3 amazing bands. Sadly I can\u2019t give a perfect rating since the North song drags the overall quality but it\u2019s still very much worth it for the 3 other amazing songs, especially Nokturnal Mortum and Temnozor\u2019s contributions.» (review from Metal Archives)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"