Germany's DELIRIUM is a Pagan Metal band rooted in the ancient history of their homeland.  Along with HROPTATYS and THORMESIS, they are members of the triumvirate dubbed "Speerwall Frankonia." Each of these groups play a similar style of paganized Blackened Death Metal that is rooted in the rich history of Frankonia and surrounding Germanic lands. While I never paid much attention in history in school, I do appreciate the dedication of bands that riff on the various myths and legends that come out of their region. Just as American metal is famous for being loud, brash and sleazy at times, European metal is often colored by the militant brutality and optimism of those primitive people that long ago traversed their lands.

That's what we find here on "Urkraft," the band's second full-length, and first in nearly ten years. They have put out two EP's in between, with each release playing on similar historical and mythological themes."Urkraft" is a slightly more polished set of songs, getting some help from their brothers in THORMESIS who have recently made big moves with their latest album, the sonically pleasing and accessible "The Sixth."

While the budget is still comparatively low here, songs like "Moosweibla" stick out as attempts at straight melody, with some simple resolving chord progressions. The drums sound a bit false, with some really repetitive cymbal strikes that feel like samples, but overall the production is true to the minimalist pagan aesthetic.

The band stays to a mid-tempo military march for much of the record, with songs like "Panzerreiter" feeling like a slow trudge through snow. There are requisite clean choral style vocals mixed in with the usual blackened screams, used to nice effect on "Mitternacht im Teufelsgrund," but nothing you haven't heard from Pagan Folk acts like MOONSORROW, TYR or FALKENBACH. There's a bit more of a Death Metal touch here than those acts, however, with a lot of rolling double bass, like on "Der schwarze Jobst II" that gives a feel of early AMON AMARTH.

After a short intro, "Der Meistertrunk" switches it up with a thrashing CHILDREN OF BODOM-style attitude. More welcome left turns are taken on "Ewiglich in Stein," which has a lovely flanged clean guitar section that adds some emotion, and "Die Muhlhez," which almost sounds like a German cover of a lost KISS B-side. The album closes with the title track, which is an appropriately rousing raise-your-pint-for-the-motherland conclusion. "Urkraft" ends on a sweetly melodic minor chord, hinting at some extra depth that the record itself doesn't quite deliver on. I do feel though that with the support of the rising THORMESIS and the rest of the "Speerwall Frankonia," DELIRIUM may be able to take their willingness to experiment and build on that to expand their territory in battles to come.