Valkyrian Music

Drekavac
Incipit Demonas Pandorum
Released 3rd April 2014
Black Metal
Released via Fall of Eden Records

‘Incipit Demonas Pandorum’ is the debut album from the Scottish black metal band Drekavac. The band was scheduled to play at Valkyrian Festival last year, but they cancelled their performance and decided to take a break. This year they are back and after a successful performance at Eradication Festival in Cardiff there is now talk of a new EP in the works.

After a deceptively melodic intro Abomination of Flesh reveals its true nature as black metal song complete with pounding drums, mid-paced guitars and vocals that range from screams to growling. Imagine old Dimmu Borgir minus the keyboards combined with the vocal style of Marduk and you will have a pretty good idea of what kind of black metal this is. The melodic guitar elements are featured throughout this album and in some cases such as in the title track, they provide a sharp contrast against the harsh vocals.

As the album progresses, it soon becomes clear that these guys don’t like to stick to the same formula. Just when you think that there’s going to be another slow and melodic intro, they suddenly decide to pick up the pace with Miasma of Dark Energies. That track has some death metal elements making it a far more ferocious beast than its predecessors thanks to the creepy vocals and the blast beat drums. Similar things can be said for Ritualistic Scarification of Evil Incarnate, though that one also features some progressive guitar work towards the latter half of the song.

It seems as though Drekavac have also been influenced by Enslaved since progressive guitar elements feature in quite a few of the tracks. The worst example of this is the final song, The Echoes of Dark Memories which could have been decent had it not been for the needlessly long and ponderous intro and rather lethargic-sounding clear vocals half way through the track.

Overall this album is a bit of a mixed bag as far as black metal goes. These guys have clearly been influenced by a wide range of black metal sub-genres. Their style isn’t uniform and it varies a lot depending on the song. So I guess that it depends on what style you prefer. Personally while I’m fond of melodic, symphonic and raw black metal, the progressive metal parts ruin it for me.

3.5/5

Iza Raittila

This entry was posted on 9th May 2015 at 11:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized with tags Black Metal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.