Wallachia returned with their fourth album, ‘Monumental Heresy’ on April 13, 2018 from Debemur Morti Productions, originally founded as a one-man band in 1992 in Norway, now delivering as full group playing a baseline of black metal but with hint back to past atmospheric tones to symphonic sweeping melodies. Hence their genre defines as Symphonic Black, for an incredible 50-minute album that includes male choir vocals, a bit of synths, wonderful clear guitar sections. All of it incorporating the commonly found hyper-accelerated playing, but shows the blueprints for incorporating advance symphonic melodies and black metal.
The entire album incorporates a mixture of factors for the listener, especially seeking something more adventurous in the black metal genre, Wallachia delivers that with passion. The opening track “Heathen Shores” grants a wonderful volley of epic measures lasting 9-minutes, before moving into classic black metal “So We Walk Alone” slips into a folk-metal Viking style at the 2-minute mark of the 7-minute track, yet strives forward engaging with listener, never become a flight of fancy rather a hint of a battle cry embracing more symphonic sound quality. The opening of “The Parallel Fate of Dreams” using piano classical influence, sounds similar to Pachelbel Canon just for a short moment, before incorporating a gothic atmospheric with female vocals performed by Aeterna (who appeared on Old Blood’s three demos). The next track “Beasts of the Earth” returns to extreme black metal roots, with a hint of gothic male vocals, hence discovering each song on the album contains uniqueness, thereby showing the talents of all involved.
Track List:
Heathen Shores
So We Walk Alone
The Prophets of Our Time
Silenced No Longer
The Parallel Fate of Dreams
Beasts of the Earth
Returned Favor of Abandonment
Untruthology Abolished
Band Members:
Thomas Leitner – drums
Grolig – vocals
Ludvik Brandsegg – bass
Lars Stavdal – Guitars, EBow, Vocals (additional)
Dr. Caroline Oblasser – cello
Paal André Sandnesmo – Guitars, Keyboards
The “Heathen Shores” a clear standout track on the album, but the other songs equally don’t falter, rather serving as contrasting styles, that mold the black metal genre with their blend of symphonic tones, from the choirs to explosive blasts of metal. It’s not all raw black metal style of Satanic Warmaster or Archgoat, rather taking ques from various bands, though the close out song “Untruthology Abolished” showcase a harshness in the vocals, with backing music varied extremism and a folk-metal underlying rhythm.
Band Links:
https://www.facebook.com/wallachiaband
https://wallachia.bandcamp.com/album/monumental-heresy
Label’s Links:
https://www.facebook.com/debemurmorti
https://soundcloud.com/debemurmorti
https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/