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Epikarecorded at Valkiria studio 2005Valkus: all instruments and vocals recorded 2005, entirely re-recorded 2013. Lyrics are taken from Velmhar, second book, llanguage used: Dekalurian. The album has been re-corded in 2013 and implemented with three new songs that replace the previous Imharad, Ilkendarth and Madaka. Released via Gs prod., limited to only 100 copies.
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www.metal-archives.com
Some have called it black metal, some have called it dark metal. I don't care what it's called, it's a great album. The whole feel is very atmospheric and gothic, but in a very unique way. Double bass drumming is rare, and tremolo picked black metal guitars are not that common either. He's not afraid to use chorus either! There are a lot of keyboards on this album. There are a wide range of sounds that I can hear, and they suit the atmospheric nature of the music very well. Not in a corny way, but in an almost epic way. Very dark and gloomy. They fit in with the guitars very well. Valkiria sings a nice variety of styles. His black metal vocals are superb, his clean chanting is perfectly adequate, and he does these other vocals that I consider to be half way between talking and Abbath. This range works very well, and serves the rest of the music. The drumming is very simple, which is no real problem. The sounds are fine, although the snare drum is a little weird. Not bad, just an odd sound. The best thing on this album is probably the clean guitars. On lots of songs, there will be great distorted guitars, but underneath them, there will often be subtle clean guitars that really give the album a boost by adding to the atmosphere. They're audible, but only really enough for them to boost the atmosphere rather than taking a prominent role. If you're a fan of atmospheric metal, with bits of gothic/doom and bits of black metal in there, this album is for you. This band is horribly underrated, and I'm sure your support would be appreciated. The best thing is, you can download all the albums for free, following the links on their myspace. Standout tracks: Amnhur, Epika.
www.musicextreme.com
Valkiria is an Italian one man project that makes a climatic black metal without using the clichés of the style such as the hyperfast blast beats and the riffs that sound like saws. Instead Valkiria begins with a mid-paced tempo with an epic and dark atmosphere. In tunes like “Dhagar” there are clean guitars with a lot of keyboards that are the essence here. There is a heavy use of keyboard here and the fundamental thing is to use these instruments and melodies to create good atmospheres and to make the compositions really memorable. There are good guitar melodies and the voices are dark and deep, quite different that in traditional black metal. There is a certain epic feeling in each one of the compositions which I find really interesting. The sound of the recording is raw in the guitars and very loud in the keyboards helping a lot to the aggressive and majestic feeling to the music of Valkiria.