Halgadom - Sturmwoge (2006)

I suspect this 2006 release from Halgadom went severely unnoticed for reasons having little to do with the fact they are on a small label and probably more for the reasons that the band has some interesting political views (or so I hear at least). Nevertheless, this German based band released one gem of an album four years ago called, 'Sturmwoge,' which is also the first full on metal release from the band as well (other releases were a mix of neo folk & metal).

After an ambient/neo classical intro with spoken vocals, the action kicks off with, 'Neuer Adel,' a fast paced melodic and very catchy pagan metal piece of music. Halgadom's music on this release is mid paced, melodic and loaded with great solos, plus three different vocal styles to boot. Each song features some incredibly memorable riffs and the solos are quite simply mind blowing, in particular on, 'Bruderschaft' & 'Werdung,' but the band impresses the whole way through this forty one minute album.

Occasionally some thrash metal influences can be found within the bands work on this release, and that naturally gives the music more energy and as you can probably expect is able to charge the listener up considerably. I've used this album many, many times to wake myself up and it works even better than you'd probably guess.

The vocals appear in the form of low death metal-ish growls, raspy black metal screams and cleanly sung vocal passages. The two harsher styles are also often times layered over each other creating an even more so powerful presence within the already lively music. Plus the production is fairly well done, its still underground and not perfect, but its by no means a raw black metal production job. It shouldn't bother anyone, though I don't think anyone that listens to this sort of music would have a problem with any sort of abysmal production if that were the case.

All in all, I find little fault with this recording, save for maybe the fact that its a little short, but at least all forty one minutes of the recording are sublime with no fillers to be found. If you dig German Pagan metal then by all means check out this recording, you shall not be disappointed.