Blakagir - Carpathian Art Of Sin (2007)

For a moment picture yourself as a character in one of your favorite epic medieval movies. You’re standing on the battlefield with sword and shield in hand. The enemy is gazing at you ready to attack at a moments notice. Your heart is beating a mile a minute and sweat from within your helmet is dripping down into your eyes. But no matter what happens you’ll keep on fighting till the last breath of air leaves your body. Why? Because you’re a warrior, ready to defend your empire against anyone or anything that dare try to overtake it. That’s the feelings this album invokes as you listen to it.

Blakagir is the epic medieval neo classical war music solo project of Hellveto mastermind L.O.N. 'Carpathian Art of Sin' sounds fairly close to the many instrumentals that have augmented each Hellveto album, MCD, demo and split release, though this album is his most engaging work in this field of music so far.

Commonly each Blakagir song holds a strong epic feeling through stunning orchestral synth work that surely bares a resemblance to music found in medieval era movies, but a fair amount of piano and acoustic guitar are also added to the overall sound for something which gives this mans work a unique flair. Most of the songs are quite bombastic and faster paced, surely giving the feeling of a heroic event, though the song 'Mystery from Grave' is slower and holds a strong melancholic theme to it, while 'Voice Before Battle' is a more straightforward ambient piece which surely gives the feeling of an army awaiting their imminent battle.

Perhaps the only differences to be found on this release compared to the debut is the lack of vocals (though some sampled voices appear on Voice Before Battle) and the fact that the song titles are all in English this time around, thus saving me the trouble of trying to translate Polish song titles on translation sites that don't work anyway.

Carpathian Art of Sin is another triumph for L.O.N. and his ongoing musical journey, and while I'm sure some people might feel that he tends to repeat himself a bit, I'm at least still not sick of his music.