Artist: Panychida
Title: Mes?c, les, b?lý sn?h – Moon, Forest, Blinding Snow
Type: Album
Label: Folter Records

This is the second album release by Panychida, a Pagan Metal band from the Czech Republic. What I heard for the most part on “Mes?c, les, b?lý sn?h” was a fiery form of Blackened Death Metal, with a suitably loud and expansive sound mix to suit that genre. It was strange therefore to hear the sound of bagpipes cutting in momentarily on one track and a couple of fillers. I’m not sure what that achieved exactly as the principal aim seems to be to get back to the business of dark and fast percussion, malevolent guitars and growled vocals.

Indeed, it wasn’t until the tenth track of this eleven track album that I really felt the force of the Panychida Pagan warriors. In common with earlier pieces, “Moon, Forest, Blinding Snow” is a forward-driving modern Black Metal track but with the unusual wispiness of flute passages, which add a nice touch. With track titles like “The Fire Worshipper” and “Flaming Forests”, you’d think that there’d be plenty to get us raise our horns and wield our shields with our colleagues in arms in the moon, forest and blinding snow, but there isn’t. “The Story ( ….of a Murderer)” is typical. It’s a heavy and advancing assault but it’s not rampaging and there’s nothing to raise the passions. “O Orile I Zmiji” is better and tries to take us into a world of belligerent Pagan camaraderie and its folk traditions but the harsh and heavy mix wins the day. “The Fire Worshipper” is again a good track with its dark and authoritative Norwegian-style Black Metal but it’s not exceptional. The following track “Veliji dini” would take us back to mediaeval times but it’s the third track and we’ve never really been there in the first place. The familiar sound of Black Metal opens up “Alatyri” but it finds itself being interrupted by a jolly bagpipe tune. We’re soon back to the harsh world we had come from, then there’s a short acoustic section. At least the bagpipe gets a bit of a run, just as the flute does on the shapeless “Ryhope” later on the album. This is the problem. It’s as if the mediaeval sections are an afterthought or even an intrusion into the fierce world of harshness. There’s no integration, at least until “Moon, Forest, Blinding Snow” where the Metal, while not losing its power or darkness, is melodic and catchy enough to allow the flute to cut in and intrigue us. Excitement and passion are found at last. The momentum is maintained to a degree with the epic final track “The Myth of the Eternal Return, Black Wings of Death”.

There’s nothing wrong with any of the elements on this album and indeed, I enjoyed much of it, but as a whole it is lacking coherence. It’s as if the dominant metal sections and the mediaeval parts, which almost seem to have been included out of obligation, are in competition with each other. As a result “Mes?c, les, b?lý sn?h – Moon, Forest, Blinding Snow” seems mixed up in what it’s trying to be. I’m struggling to make sense of it all.

http://www.myspace.com/panychida

http://www.folter666.de

Andrew Doherty

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