What a lovely piece of music, indeed!

Since the 90's, the "one man band" format gathers great success, for some guys just do music without caring about playing live like Quorthon did with BATHORY. Now it's time for ERED WETHRIN, from Salt Lake City (USA) come out of the dark and show its wonderful music with "Tides of War", the band's first album.

First of all, you'll not find something like earlier BURZUM or BATHORY albums, it's a Pagan Black Metal done with lots of melodies and long songs (the shortest, "Realm of the Tyrant", last just 5:06 minutes), in a vein somewhat near GRAVELAND and EWIGKEIT, but with personality.

The sound production is really raw and could be better in a lot of moments, for the guitars are really low in volume level, as the keyboards are very evident, but we can have a clear idea that the band has this kind of sounding just for Sven's ideology, so let's have in mind: sometimes, the raw sound is the soul of a work, as it is here. But again Ol' Big Daddy here says: it really could be better.

All the songs go straight to the hearts of fans (as did in my case), but the best ones are: the melancholic and aggressive "Frozen Rivers" (with slower tempo, and good drumming), the more introspective "Frigid Tides", the excellent "Bloody Annals and Brooding Skies" (the vocals are fine, remembering something done by Lord Kaiaphas, former vocalist from ANCIENT, and the guitars are louder here, showing a great work with riffs...), and the more traditional (in Black Metal terms, please) "Realm of the Tyrant".

Great work, and hope Sven will bring something more to us as soon as possible!

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