Customer Reviews

Goat Horns

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nokturnal Mortum... Overhyped Nazi junk, or absolutely genius symphonic/folk black metal? I'll take the latter choice, personally.

Integrating their bloodline's pride into their music, NM make use of TWO (yes, two) keyboards throughout the album with enchanting string passages, folkish melodies, and tumbling pianos and pizzacato strings. Much, if not all, of the album is dominated by keyboards. BM purists may scoff at this and dismiss NM as a CoF rip-off with a Nazi gimmick. But this masterpiece surpassed all of my expectations. I have never heard such emotion put into audio, alongside Burzum, Ildjarn, and select others. Varrgoth's slighty distorted and anguished rasps let the listener envision ancient Pagan rituals on a dark summer night ages ago. The guitars don't play a huge role here, but use a tasteful distortion, and often back the keyboards with strong and almost catchy melodies. The musicianship is simply superb, especially with the highly skilled keyboardists, steady guitars, and the techno-like pulsating of the drum machine's bass drum. (Actually, they use an electronic drum set, but it's close enough.)

The atmosphere here is absolutely indescribable. The guitars and keys fade in and out and weave beautiful melodies that will suck you straight into the music. A tranquil and magical atmosphere permeates the entire record, especially on the title and the closing intrumental, "Eternal Circle". Acoustic guitars are often hidden behind all the patterns, creating somewhat of an ambience coupled with the extravagant keyboard work.

All the songs are amazing, but the high points come with the epic title track, and by far the 11-minute novel-like song "Veles' Scrolls", which has a mind-biggling song structure, and shows that the band probably spent months, if not years composing. Truly beautiful, its moods change, but remains tranquil in true NM style. All songs use layered keyboards to acherive the ultimate connection emotionally with the listener, and creates a suttle mood.

I would highly reccommend this to fans of bands like Summoning, Agalloch, Ulver, Burzum, or even older Dimmu Borgir material. This is without a doubt one of my favorite CD's ever. This is symphonic black metal at its peak. Amazing.

Beautiful, original black metal with two keyboards. Songs are carefuly composed and different parts smoothly transition into each other (unlike Cradle of Filth) Kinda like dismal euphony/satyricon in the feeling they leave behind after the album is finished playing.

Anybody who is into majestic black metal such as emperor,dimmu borgir,satyricon,summoning, and necromantia will truly love this album. The songs are pretty long and with alot of dark melody get this album you wont be dissapointed.

HAIL SATAN

I cannot find words to describe the greatness of this album. I bought it because all of the reviews I read were good and the sound samples on this site sounded decent. Well, I never expected anything like what I heard once I got it. The main instrument on this album (and all other Nokturnal Mortum albums) is keyboard. (Nokturnal Mortum actually has two keyboardists.) The atmospheres created with the keyboards are astounding symphonies that are backed up by the humming guitar and the whispering hiss of Knjaz Varggoth's vocals (which are behind or equal to the keys in the mix, giving the feeling of being high in the Carpathians with K.V. screaming below you and the keys playing above you). The keyboards especially stand out on songs like "Black Moon Overture", which is basically a classical piece which only a musical genius could have composed, and "Eternal Circle", which is a slower classical-type piece which has a more sorrowful atmosphere than the other. Other Highlights are "Unholy Orathania", which has a Slavic Pagan theme in the beginning, and "Veles' Scrolls", which is an 11 minute opus involving both great keyboards and guitars. As a final note, buy this album or you will live in misery knowing that you have missed out on an awesome musical experience.

I consider myself pretty knowledgeable when it refers to Black Metal, but I'm still wondering how come I never heard of Nokturnal Mortum before. Of course, one thing is that this band hails from Ukraine, a country seemingly unknown for their worldwide acknowledged music. Up until recently, I was still unaware of this gem of a band, hibernating in the cold dephts of Ukraine. But I wont go into the long band description/biography (since I researched about it alot :), I'll just add a peculiar note, this band features 2 keyboardists. And two talented bastards. From the opening of Black Moon Overture, you can hear the beautiful and intrincate melodies could put Mozart and Bach to shame.

But the second track, is where the Black Metal magic starts. Knjaz Varggoth has this 'deep' rasp, not as screamy, but deeper than the usual BM rasp. This is an ultimate Black Metal album. It's brutal, yet its melodic. Everywhere in the album, traces of Ukranian folklore music can be heard, best exemplified by track 6, Kolyada. This music is mindbogglingly complex, and arranging all these sounds into one homogeneously sounding music is extremely difficult. The album is produced flawlessly, although a bit more crisp guitars would be desired, however everything adds up to the atmosphere. This is what Emperor would probably sound like, had Mortiis stayed and influenced it.

Making a long story short, Nokturnal Mortum had produced one of the best melodic folk Black Metal albums I have ever heard. Goat Horns is something that you DO NOT wan't to miss, if you're reading this, you're obviously interested, as some reviewer before said, if you won't get it, you'll leave your life in misery knowing you missed the oportunity to listen to this absolutely AMAZING album. Goat Horns is some of the finest Black Metal albums I've heard in years.

On a side note, check out Knjaz Vorggoth's side-project, Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra - The Key to the Gates of Apocalypse. It's ambient/melodic Black Metal, in the vein of Goat Horns. Stunning stuff.

I downloaded the song Kolyada, and that drew me into this wonderful and amazing band. You may have heard that these guys are Nazis or whatever, but i dont know or care anything about that. Whatever they believe doesnt take away from the fact that this is perfection in musical form.

The bass is sick, the drums are amazing and the keyboards are the greatest you will ever hear. The guitar sound is kind of played down, but the keyboards and bass are the dominating factors of the album anwyay.

Great instruments, epic songs, what more do you need? Every track is a winner. This cd should be mandatory in any music fans collection!

This album is a pure masterpiece. It has real good guitar and keyboard

I didn't expect much when I first put this CD in my player. I have had an album by their pagan "brothers", Mental Home (also on The End Records), which is lackluster at best. Needless to say I was completely blown away. Finally somebody kicks Emperor's ass. This is what contemporary Black Metal is all about. Haunting melodies and unrelenting aggression. Varggoth's impassioned singing is not like your average weak hissing either, but still undoubtfully retains all the BM evilness. If anything he reminds me of early Quorthon. The only disappointment was that the lyrics were not included.

STAMP OUT CHRISTIANITY! HAIL THE ANCIENT GODS OF OUR FATHERS!

SEE ABOVE. NO FURTHER COMMENTS NEEDED

This is one of those CD's. One that when you hear it you realize...this is something you have yearned to hear all your life. I put it in my top ten Black Metal CD's of all time! BUY IT NOW!!!