After the well deserved written slapping I gave Faethon in this round of reviews this was a CD I approached with a lot of trepidation. The reason is that Manruthel is a solo project from the twice sacked drummer of Ukrainian group Nokturnal Mortum who are undisputed NS banner wavers. Oriyanskiye Skazan'ya was originally recorded in 1997 “in non-stop manner for 66 minutes and will immerse you into the World of GODS, Spirits, Slavonic Wizards and Mysteries.” There is no mention anywhere here of anything contentious unless it is within Ukrainian lyrics and vocals which are beyond any translation skills that I could undertake. There is a grey area between what can be interpreted as national pride and white pride and in the case of Manruthel it is with a fair bit of research impossible to interpret one way or another as is the sunwheel on his MySpace page. With this in mind I am going to have to use the innocent until proven guilty judgement and leave any further debate here and concentrate on the music.
The original release has been expanded upon for the reissue and has new art work as well as an extra track Giberborea. It is an epic work of 76 minutes and is free flowing opus of symphonic and ambient orchestral work. It should be mentioned also that everything that Faethon did wrong is done right here, even down to the sounds of birds creating tranquil atmosphere interspersed occasionally amongst the music. This was recorded in the artist’s home studio as well and suffers no problems in the production, everything sounds perfectly mixed and all instruments and vocals come through as professional.
Austere keyboards quickly create atmosphere and the sound is naturally reminiscent of Astrofaes and other Ukrainian hordes. The first couple of parts serve as introduction, there are noises that sound like they are crawling out a primeval stew on the pulsating and aptly named, ‘The Lord Of The Bog Swamps ‘ which serves as eerie horror film music. Things get more bombastic with strings flittering like ghostly moths on ‘Overlimiting Chambers Of Kromeshniks’ this gives out a feeling of palpable dread and again the keys are out the John Carpenter school of horror. If this were a film it would be Lovecraftian or maybe Stephen King’s ‘The Mist’ there are certainly beasts lurking here. Vocals also finally come in and are ghastly and have an evil, vileness behind their rasp.
I should have mentioned that these numbers all belong in what was termed as ‘The Night Side’ of the album and this is evident as mood brightens to the ‘Day,’ as horses gallop into the ‘Brilliance Of The Thundering Swords.’ Here it is very classical, almost a Tchaikovsky Cossack type overture although an unexpected electric guitar comes in with more vocals and the sound of thunder in the sky, making this really dramatic. I absolutely love the medieval pipe parping romp that is ‘The Mysteries Of Rusalias And Wormwood’ it takes me right back to the dark ages and is an album highlight. I also really think the apocalyptic end of ‘Twilight Of ... ‘ is particularly brilliant too as it layers a few well knows tunes up on top of each other such as ‘The Death March’ and ‘Stars And Stripes’… then it is Sunset and the cycle is set to repeat itself.
This is an album that fans of the likes of Summoning, early Mortiis and Profanum would no doubt really like but it sounds nothing like any of them as it is completely original. It is an album I have listened to now about 6 times to and considering the running time that’s a lot of hours and I will be happy to go back to it again. This is an enthralling tale of forgotten legends and in the spirit of Ukrainian metal is an essential purchase for lovers of the more well known bands out there.
http://www.myspace.com/slavamunruthel
http://www.munruthel.byethost13.com
http://www.gardarikamusikk.com
