Svarrogh — Temple of the sun
The material here just feels so much more dramatic, full and grounded instead sounding like a weaker less believable carbon-copy of the likes of Allerseelen, Sangre Cavallum, etc. Here they have landed fully in their own sound which mixes in memories of their black metal past with some of vocals traces and some rather nice powerful bleak guitar textures - but in no way can you call this black metal or even metal - this is very much grounded in the Ahnstern sound. The tracks are built with a powerful and memorable mix of mandoline, tamboura, synth, beats, guitars and of course vocals that all meet in a dense wall of soaring sound. Each track features rather wonderful vocal performances from the likes of Gerhard from Allerseelen , Valerio from Symbiosis, Juris from Beverina, B. Ardo & Rangel from Sangre Cavallum - all singing in their own native tongue but never really taking on the flavours of each band - with all the tracks managing to sound like Svarrogh which is a feat itself
A powerful and passionate mix of styles and the forging of a fully formed new musical personality with the only downside being that this sadly is only a mini album lasting just over 20 minutes and is over far too quick.