Now that is a pleasant surprise! Although I am kind of into the whole pagan/folk Metal scene I never had a clue or idea of this band. Since they have only released a split CD before this release, it is something totally natural. Anyway, to the point:AIUMEEN BASOA (which stands for "forests of screams" in the Basque language) hail from the Basque Country of Spain and here we deal with their debut album, "Iraganeko Bide Malkartsutik".What we hear on these 54 minutes is, allow me to say, music at its kindest and perhaps most perfect form! Since many of you may hit up on me for saying that, let us begin in order to see what we have here.

The CD consists of 6 tracks of a total time about 54 minutes. That means (with simple mathematics) that each song lasts around 8 to 9 minutes. Naturally I despise records where songs last more than 5 minutes as most of the times they do bore me. But here we are talking about something completely different! The band managed to create songs that not only they do not bore you but on the contrary, they make you hit the "Play" button after the last song ends. We may characterize their music as something like pagan/folk Metal but that would be unfair because in their music someone can find elements of ULVER, IN THE WOODS, some traditional folk music of their country and some VEN BUENS ENDE if I may say so. And all these passed through a Black melancholic filter of Norwegian Metal and a touch of SKYFORGER.

Having only released one split CD 9 years ago ("Triarchy Of Vasconia") I wonder what took them so long to released their debut album. No surprise in lyrical themes as they do have to do with nature and folklore matters. The thing that surprised me and kind of annoyed me (but then I kind of realized why they did that) is that everything on the album, from title tracks to lyrics, is on their mother language. That can possibly be a minus for an average listener as he/she may not understand what the whole album is about, but on the other hand it is what the band wanted to do in order to express its lyrical themes the way they knew better, on their native language.After all that is the beauty of music: not understanding a thing about the lyrics but being touched by the music, now that is magnificent my friends.

In conclusion, fear not that you may not understand some of the lyrics (hey, use Google translator if you want to, that's what I did) and let yourself travel in the country of the Basques through the music of AIUMEEN BASOA. I'd love to put a 10 on this release but I really want to see what the future holds for these guys.