MONDO METAL STL: Vindland's "Hanter Savet" Review

Format: CD, Digipak CD

Label: Black Lion Productions

Release Date: March 20, 2016

A Solid Offering Of Pagan Black Metal

Vindland of Paimpol, Brittany, France was formed eleven years ago. They made and distributed an EP in 2009 called “Ancestors Age” and played shows throughout France until 2010. But, they’d encountered a few setbacks and put the band on hold until 2012. They seemed to disappear, but, in fact, they went back to the drawing board.

As the band worked to put themselves back in order their drummer, Marc Le Gall, would go on to drum for other black metal bands like Hentgram, Les Chants de Nihil and, in the live setting, Belenos. However, Le Gall didn’t lose sight of his work with Vindland and, through 2015, the band commenced to write and produce new material. Early in 2016, Vindland’s last self-released CD was seen by Swedish extreme metal label Black Lion Productions. Their work earned them a signing and Black Lion re-released the album.

Throughout “Hanter Savet” there is strong riffing and composition, very clean guitar harmonies and clear folk metal influence in the soloing and lead guitar work. There is a brightness to the leads that stands out shortly after you begin the album, but it’s not a glaring or overwhelming source of light; it feels rather complimenting to the band’s sonic picture. The bass throughout this album is full-bodied and adds just the right amount of weight and presence to the overall finished product. When the music doesn’t rely strictly on tight, galloping drumming or unrelenting blasts, the rhythms do ease up at times, providing further clarity and space.

Singer Romuald E.’s vocals are high-pitched and harsh, helping a great deal to complete their black metal sound but, unlike the band’s most often claimed influence Windir, there is no stirring singing or choral arrangements. It’s said that Vindland’s lyrical inspirations are nature and Nordic folklore but the spirit of these themes is unclear through the vocal delivery. It’s only through a concerted effort and careful listening that one may determine that Romuald is singing songs in deference to the Sogndal tradition with titles in a variety of languages, from Slavic to Germanic. However, despite the occult clarity of the vocals, the overall effect is fitting, given the fact that this album is, at core, a black metal release.

The eighth track “Skeud ar gwez,” at eleven minutes-thirty, shows a good example of the variety Vindland can choose to express. With this song’s introduction, if one listens to it out of the metal context, a person could maybe determine it as sounding a little like post-rock: uncomplicated but crystalline and deadly earnest post-rock. This concept drops out quickly and completely when the song plummets with an easy drum cue into another straight-forward set of blast-beats, tremolo and shrill, gravelly rasps.

Besides this brief departure from the template “Hanter Savet” builds from the very beginning, there’s not a lot of variance in the music. After fifty-five minutes with this CD, the point, however put together or well-produced, is absolutely hammered home. Fortunately, the sound that Vindland is developing is keen, very unique and absolutely respectful of the Nordic metal tradition. With more exposure and time spent honing their style, this band, once thought dead, should not only reanimate but flourish and prosper, adding volumes to the pagan black metal genre.