Vehemency
Uh, irritating. Dragobrath’s third full-length, Fra Myrer Taake..., provides some absolutely fantastic moments, but at times it’s lackluster to the point that it’s almost annoying. I’m not familiar with Dragobrath’s earlier works so excuse my lack of comparisons to their back catalogue.
While Julian Mytsyk’s other project Kroda focuses more on nature and its beauty, Dragobrath’s target is something more mysterious and perhaps even experimental to black metal’s standards. Guitar melodies are often dissonant and almost creepy (evident already on the first track after the intro, ”Inhaling the Distant Open Far...”), although there are songs like ”Nightwings” that have very Drudkhish, happy melodies à la Autumn Aurora. The most stunning moments are provided by the center-piece, over 11-minute song ”Blazes of Starlit Firmament”, followed by ”Crimson Leaves Dance”. These songs contain some very beautiful melodies and are overall very nice compositions.
I can only wish that the rest of the album was of that quality too. Surely they are all at least listenable songs but some of the dissonant riffs are nearing irritation because they sound as if it’s dissonant for the sake of being just different. Hence I love the previously mentioned two songs that sound more free and honest, not filled with unnecessary amounts of weirdness.
Dragobrath deserves points for not being a total clone of any other band, but at the same time I’m not overly impressed by the album as a whole. ”Walk the Path of Sorrow”, a Satyricon cover, seems unfitting and the programmed drums leave a lot to be desired. Otherwise the production is pretty neat: the sound is really heavy with lots of bass. Fra Myrer Taake... is a fine album that includes a couple of awesome tracks but has too many flaws overall.