The history of Pagan/Viking Black Metal started on the year of 1988, when BATHORY released "Blood Fire Death". The main reason for the changes on lyrics was due some letters that Quorthon received from the fans asking him about some rumors, as if he really lived on a dark cave and was used to drink children blood. And the main one was that he was sick of writing about Satan, Hell and these kinds of stuff (by what we could read on "Blood on Ice" booklet, Quorthon really seemed to be pissed off about these rumors and lyrics), so the Viking and pagan lyrics started to appear (and of course, this change in lyrics lead to a change in music as well). And then, of course, BATHORY became again a main source of inspiration for many bands with albums like "Blood Fire Death", "Hammerheart" and "Twilight of the Gods". Ok, I know that MANOWAR and even the singer called THOR could be said as earlier influences, but not on the musical parts. So, as an heir of BATHORY Viking era legally, now the English quartet CROM DUBH comes with its first album, "Heimweh".

We can feel on this album a more Black Metal orientated music, harsh and cold, but with some touches that really seems with Pagan Metal. Even done only with vocals, guitars, bass and drums, the common musical instruments in Metal, and not with some Folk music instruments, the Pagan atmosphere is there, but as told above, in a harsh and cold format. Of course a good reference to their music is the first album from PRIMORDIAL, "Imrama", but a bit more melodic and folk here.

The sound quality is a bit harsher than we could expect, but remember: in the case of CROM DUBH, this raw quality can be seen as a part of their musical identity.

Well, besides it's their first album (before it, they released two Demos and one EP), we can really enjoy their best moments, as "Cutting Teeth II", the excellent "Kings II" (some fine and really tender guitar riffs), the darkened and introspective "Sedition", and the aggressive "Sailing to Byzantium", full of musical variations.

A very good band, and will have a great future for sure.