GRAVELAND — Carpathian Wolves (review)

GRAVELAND — Carpathian Wolves album cover Album · 1994 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Vehemency
The Polish black metal scene in the 90s is often underrated even though that period included many great and influential bands, and albums that were ahead of their time. Graveland’s Carpathian Wolves is one of the finest albums from that era along with Veles’ Night on the Bare Mountain.

Carpathian Wolves is an almost 50-minute furious yet epic album. Such tracktitles as ”Barbarism Returns” tell quite much already. Although often hateful, the music has its climax moments every now and then when folkish guitar riffs appear, and also synths that are mixed quite high. Thus the tempo often varies from Capricornus’ sloppy blast beats to slower and more epic sections. I can not even name any example tracks because this is pretty much the manner how all the songs are composed - and what a sweet way it is indeed.

”Witches Holocaust” differs from the rest of the album in that it’s a slow, haunting track from the beginning to the end. It’s a truly magical track with its focus on creating a creepy atmosphere, made possible by almost saddened guitar riffs and chanting vocals in the background.

Carpathian Wolves is an album that showed great enthusiasm and power already in 1994, around the same time when things were happening in Norway. Graveland never made a record like this anymore, not to say that their (or more specified, his) later career would be bad. It’s just that Carpathian Wolves was and still is quite a unique album that I would only compare to Night on the Bare Mountain, perhaps.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Merciless Crossover Thrash
BODY COUNT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us