Better late than never! With a small delay, since the album was out almost three months ago, I came across the debut CD from DRAUGNIM, Northwind's Ire. But the question is still the same as in almost all the releases they fall in my hands: was this album worth the patience and the time I spent? Well, I think it is.

Their bio says that the band was formed in the last year of the previous millennium, 1999 it is, by Morior. Even though he started as an one-man project, he joined forces with Chimedra. During the years that passed, the lineup was completed and they released four demos, despite their misfortune (their rehearsal room was flooded when a sewer broke). After some lineup changes, they signed to Spikefarm Records and their debut album already hit the stores.

OK, these three lads' music is not going to win the gold, not even the bronze, metal of innovation. But their more-Epic-than-Folk/Black mid-tempo Metal is well played and deserves some of our attention. Produced by Henri Sorvali (MOONSORROW) and with some help from Repe Misanthrope of IMPALED NAZARENE you can have an idea of what the music in this album is all about. All songs have more than six minutes duration, except one that has five. Even when they decide to put more speed, the keys in the back ground still keep that mid-tempo feeling and give some extra points as far as the epic atmosphere concerns. Chimedra's growls bind nicely with the war-like feeling throughout the album that is supported by some horn samples and some choral voices. If we want to point something negative, this would be the fact that most of the melodies in their songs are similar, making the album (after some auditions) quite boring. But it's just their debut album, so they have room for improvement.

Northwind's Ire is a nice debut album. It has nice atmosphere, good production and some quite good ideas. The main problem is the monotonous parts I mentioned before. Nevertheless this is not the last time that this promo lays in my CD player.