REVIEW: MOONSORROW - TÄMÄ IKUINEN TALVI

 

MOONSORROW - TÄMÄ IKUINEN TALVI (Sagitarius Prods., 2001)

Tracks: 1- The Battle for Phjola (Part I - To brother, Part II - the Realm of Red Snow, Part III - IN the Glare of Icy Lakes), 2- On the Green Throne, 3- Winter, 4- Blood of an Apostate, 5- the Moon´s Sorrow

This CD starts with an orchestrated part along with some keyboards that embellish the air. Then this subtle parts are followed by some extremely raw and fast black metal whose mainpoint is that is full of keyboards everywhere...and that is what makes Moonsorrow a special band: the quality of the keyboard player which is all over the place playing from chord progression, to arrangements to melodic lines and creating dark climatic passages everywhere. This first track, which is more than twelve minutes long is called "The Battle of Pohjola" and is really epic with a lot of battle sounds in the background and interesting breaks and changes. Is like a mini concerto on its own. And that is a really great characteristic of Moonsorrow´s music...the heavy orchestration and arrangements and the really well structured musical pieces that are part of their musical opus. Four of the five tracks contained on this CD are over eight minutes long and are really well developed. One of the CDs of the month (specially thanks to the keys). Favorite tracks: The five.