"Nothing is forgotten. Nothing is for ever forgotten". With these words, Helrunar's singer, Skald Draugir brings the band's first album Frostnacht to the point and thus justifies the hopes of all those unwilling to let neither the raw power or Nordic black metal nor pre-Christian spirituality sink into oblivion". These are the words from the small German label Lupus Lounge as an introduction to this German black metal act Helrunar. Black metal is a very emotional and mystic type of music and this is even more obvious when the vocals are from a foreign language. Such is the case here and if you know German, you should have no problems understanding this clear / harsh sort of vocals. The sad, cold and dark emotion is being not only expressed by the voice but the music as well especially by the excellent and inspiring guitar work. It's all there: the great black metal riffs, the bone crushing ones, epic lead, tremolo picking and the cool classical guitar parts. Very few electronics scattered here and there like wind and thunder samplings, church bells, and a couple discrete passages where I could hear some keyboards ("Frostnacht" and ".Bis Die Seele Gefriert"). On "Unten Und Im Nordem" you'll find my favorite riffs, an epic feel and classical guitars but where this instrument combines with a mouth harp to produce a great pagan / Viking mood is down a couple songs later on "Der Trank Des Gehangten". The closing track involves quite a few acoustics sounds and actually ends with a very good musical moment featuring this instrument in solo.
Thanks to the good folks at Lupus Lounge for giving us a chance to discover another talented new black metal troop.
