adg211288 Elemental Tales is the third studio album from Russian folk/melodic death metal act Svartby. The 2012 release represents some changes for the band as it’s their first full-length to feature English lyrics rather than Swedish ones. The album was also recorded with half the main line-up as session musicians, including the lead vocalist. Only Giftsvamp (keyboards) and Lindwurm (guitars) remain from the line-up that recorded the group’s previous album Riv, Hugg och Bit (2009). The line-up has even changed since the release of Elemental Tales’ prior teaser release Scum from Underwater leaving the only full-time member other than those I already mentioned in the recording line-up being Humla (guitars). Although new full-time members have started being recruited post-recording of Elemental Tales the band is here joined by guests Sartre (vocals), Owl (bass) and RJoker' (drums).

I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect when coming to Elemental Tales. I haven’t encountered Svartby before this and on the surface the album looks to be another one of these folk acts that just don’t sit right with me, that is to say an act that forgoes use of traditional instruments and uses a synthesiser to replicate them, and songs about drinking or trolls. This isn’t the case, at least in regard to their lyrical content, even if they do favour the synth. Svartby doesn’t have a single song about trolls. I’d say their lyrics still fit almost the same vein, but Svartby prefers to create their own tales and creatures rather than treading the same ground covered by countless others before them. I usually prefer more serious folk metal, but I approve all the same. They actually make a point of distancing themselves from the whole troll thing, along with numerous other things such as the terms ‘Pagan’ and ‘Viking’. I definitely approve, seeing as I think both of those terms are as ambiguous as you can get when discussing styles of metal music. Although Svartby is one of these bands that prefers to use their own unique term to describe their music, Svartcore in this case, they also put forth ‘brutal folk metal’. And that ladies and gentlemen is pretty damn accurate.

As I mentioned, Svartby favours the synthesiser to create their melodies. Its folk acts like this I normally don’t like and in most I’d probably consider this cheap and synthetic but when you get an act such as Svartby whose folk side is really very much secondary to their metal then it just doesn’t matter so much. Svartby’s sound here is more about the riffs, and they know how to deliver a good riff. Their music may appear goofy on the surface (though you can’t deny the coolness of the designs of those elementals on this albums artwork), but it’s as intense and indeed brutal as melodeath gets. It’s solid and in your face death metal first and foremost, although the folksy melodies are very noticeable as well and it’s undeniable that Elemental Tales is very much a folk metal as well. The folk melodies are really what adds the ‘melodic’ into this brand of melodic death metal rather than lead guitar melodies and leads.

Elemental Tales isn’t a very long album, not much over half an hour, but that’s okay for this kind of music I think. It comes, knocks you for six and then leaves you wondering what the hell just happened (in a good way of course). It’s then that you realise that you’re going to need to listen to this again. And again. And again. You get the picture. I’d say that’s because there’s a lot more depth to this music than just a death metal thrashing away with some folk melodies going on in the background, because those folk melodies are nearly always top quality, which is something that becomes especially apparent in the more mid-paced tracks, and the songs all pack serious punch. While there’s probably no denying that melodies of this quality would sound even more awesome delivered with traditional instruments I have to respect that wasn’t the sort of thing Svartby intended to go for. In fact this band may be the one case where the impact of their music may have been diminished if they’d gone down that route, as it may have distracted from the true intent here; to have been to create a furious death metal assault and on that count, the album is very much a success.

8.2/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))