Halgadom - Wille : Tatkraft : Potential (2009)

Since I'm hopelessly slow at keeping up to date with things (much less actually getting physical copies), its taken me a bit to get my hands on Halgadom's most recent effort, 'Wille : Tatkraft : Potential.' In case you're not familiar with this North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany based band, they have the weird habit of creating both gorgeous neo folk music as well as a more Pagan melodic metal style, which is exactly what they give us on this recording.

After a simple intro of spoken voices and synths the action kicks in on 'Ginnungagap' with pummeling drums and initially a more straight forward death metal sound before shifting towards the more familiar melodic Halgadom sound that also features a more mid-paced speed as well as a mixture of death, black and cleanly sung vocals, oftentimes layered over each other. 'Asthetik des Schwertes' bursts out with one hell of a drive behind is as well as an occasional slower part of total epicness, which is followed by a harder fist pumper if I ever heard one (and if I actually understood German too), while the title track surely doesn't relent either in style or passion and has a fantastic solo present as well. 'Sang der Nornen' is the albums first calm song since the intro and it manifests itself as a slower instrumental that also has some strings attached for extra depth and feeling, whereas 'Werde der Du bist' is similarly slow, though with vocal presence.

Comparing this record to the bands back catalog it will at first remind of their '06 effort, 'Sturmwoge,' with the catchy and often times hard hitting riffs and occasional solos as well the pace of the music is usually similar and the three different vocal styles remain just the same. Perhaps what sets the two albums apart is merely the slower songs and the lack of superb solos on just about every song, but its surely not a bad direction, just not as overly powerful and filled with energetic drive as that one. Still, the latter half of the album loses its steam after you give the album a few listens and it becomes obvious that the song writing just isn't as strong as its been in the past.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't chalk this one down as a fail, its surely worth it if you're a fan of their previous works, though I'd start with those vastly superior previous creations before jumping into this one.