Showing posts with label Dark Seal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dark Seal. Show all posts

Friday, May 14, 2021

Dark Seal/Stvoření světa/Murderous Production/2021 CD Review

 

   Dark  Seal  are  a  band  from  Czechia  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  and  plays  a  very  epic  and  atmospheric  form  of  black  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2021  album  "Stvoření světa"  which  was  released  by  Murderous  productions.


  A  very  dark  and  ritualistic  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  whispered  voices,  chants  and  synths before  going  into  a  heavier  musical  direction.  The  riffs  also  add  in  a  decent  amount  of  melody  while  the  faster  sections  of  the  songs  also  add  in  a  great  amount  of  tremolo  picking  and  blast  beats  which  also  gives  the  music  more  of  a  raw  feeling.


  Vocals  are  mostly  high  pitched  black  metal  screams  while  the  songs  also  add  in  a  decent  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts.  Some  of  the  tracks  are  also very  long  and  epic  in  length  as  well  as  some  songs  also  adding  in  a  small  amount  of  clean  playing  and  when  guitar  solos  and  leads  are  utilized  they  are  also  done  in  a  very  melodic  style.


  Some  of  the  songs  also  add  in  a  small  amount  of  clean  pagan  vocals  along  with  the  music  also having  its  atmospheric  moments.  as  well  as  all  of  the  musical  instruments  also  having  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.  The  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  are  written  in  the  bands  native  tongue  and  cover  Paganism  and  Nature  themes.


  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Dark  Seal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  epic  and  atmospheric  pagan  black  metal,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  " Poselství  z  hvězd"  "Lughnasad"  and  "Exodus  niterně slabých".  8  out  of  10.


Dark Seal - Stvoření Světa (Full Album Premiere) - YouTube


  

Monday, April 15, 2013

Dark Seal Interview



1.Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never heard of you before?

We are from Brno,which is a moravian metropolis and the second largest city in Czech republic.The first impulse for the formation of the band appeared in 2009 but the band started to work actively until 2010.
During the year 2011 the  lineup settled to its present look :

Peter – guitars,vocals
Dušan – guitars,backing vocals
Dimi – bass
Petr – drums

With this lineup we started to promote ourselves and play more concerts.In summer 2012 we recorded our first album ,,Pagan thoughts Vol. 1‘‘.Musically we are focus most on the black metal scene,even we are playing a milder form of this style with a focus on pagan metal and old school.

2. How would you describe your musical sound?

As I mentioned in previous question…I would include us among the bands playing Pagan black metal with elements of Old school.

3.  Your musical lyrics cover a lot of Pagan topics, how would you describe your views in this area?

Yes,our lyrics are from a big part about nature and history of the celtic mythology area.We are also have a place in our work for a lyrics with resistence against the church and religious fanaticism in all its forms.On this themes we are build our lyrics and it will be the same in the future.We like history.

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the bands name?

In the beginning, we are called Dark Pagan Thoughts, which marked a clear focus of the band. In 2011, we shortened the name to Dark Seal, which more reflects the dark side of our band. Pagan Thoughts in our logo still appears and shows our focus on paganism.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?

Here I would like to mention the actions that we played  which were organized by Hell Fast Attack Moravian underground fest and recently on Chaos tour 2013, where we played with a lot of quality domestic and foreign bands like Bessat (PL),Inferno(CZ),Pergamen(CZ) and Evil(SK).On live shows we always try to give the best possible performance wherever we play.We don’t use on stage warpainting or any other requisitions.

6. Do you have any touring plans for the future?

Due to the fact that we are still a new band on the scene, it is not easy to enforce. We are actively looking for further concerts.

7. Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label and if so what kind of label do you feel that would be a perfect fit for the music?

With music publishers in the Czech Republic it is problematic, there's no greater company, which has expressed an interest of the underground band. Small ones, for which the Czech bands issued their CD‘s, mostly don’t want to support other bands due to lack of finances.Of course we would like to have the support from some label, but so far  we don’t have any offer.We can arrange things ourselves, and with the release of the CD, which we did at our own expense, helped us David from the Murderous Production,which we thank him very much for it.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black and pagan metal?

I think that fans from the Czech Republic and all over the world likes Pagan,Black metal and there is an interest in this music.This is evidenced by a number of domestic and foreign bands, which are move on this scene.However, attendance at concerts is declining, which is probably caused by the global financial crisis, and last but not least the reluctance of people to visit the concerts.The largest attendance at the concerts I recorded at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s.

9. Are there any other musical projects besides this band or is this a full time line up?

In my case, it's the only musical activity (not counting an active listening CD,haha ...), but our lead singer and guitarist Peter works in the local Death metal band Fatality and played in the band Amon (before joining Dark Seal).

10. What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?

I assume that we will continue in the same style of music which the band gained, according to the feedback from fans it is moving in the right direction. We are working on new songs and lyrics which appears on our next recording. Mainly we want to play concerts as much as possible.

11. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

I can say that our music affects all metal styles, and I think that you can hear it in our record. Each of us likes different artists, but mostly you can hear in our music Trash and elements of Black and Death Metal.We are also like bands like Behemoth, Immortal, Satyricon, Marduk, Demonaz, Unleashed, Enslaved, Borknagar (these last two have inspired me to use designated clean vocal lines into our creation) and many others from the Czech and worldwide scenes.For me, it's still a horde of classic bands such as Kreator, Sodom, Venom, etc.., which are caused the Old school sound to our music.

12. Outside of music what are some of your interests?

Due to the workload of the employment and the family, we don’t have too much free time. But probably the most popular activity outside playing and listening to music are walking through nature,drinking with friends or playing pc games :-D.

13. Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?

Thank you so much for your interest in our band and this interview. In this way, we salute and thanks the Murderous Production, Mortem zine and Hell Fast Attack and especially all our fans and friends who support us, because without them,it it definitely did not work.Metal Forever!!!!!!!!!

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Dark Seal/Pagan Thoughts Volume 1/2011 CD Review


  Dark  Seal  are  a  band  from  the  Chezch  Republic  that  plays  a  very  epic  and  atmospheric  form  of pagan/black  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2011  album  "Pagan  Thoughts  Volume  1".

  Drums range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  some  blast  beats  being  utilized  at  times,  while  the  synths,  sampler,  piano  and  programming  bring  a  very  epic,  atmospheric,  medieval  and  classical  sound  to  the  recording,  as  for  the  bass  playing  it  has  a  very  dark  tone  with  riffs  that  follow  the  riffing  that  are  coming  out  of  the  guitars  and  at  times  they  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  pagan/black  metal  riffs  that  utilize  some  raw  and  primitive  sounding  elements  as  well  as  some  melody,  death,  traditional,  and  doom  metal  influences  in  the  riffing,  while  the  lead  guitars  which  are  only  used  briefly  are  very  melodic  sounding  heavy  metal  guitar  solos  and  leads,  as  for  the  acoustic  guitars  when  they  are  utilized  they  use  finger  picking  and  full  chords  to  bring  some  dark  medieval  elements  to  the  recording.

  Vocals  are  mostly  grim  sounding  pagan/black  metal  screams  along  with  some  clean  singing  vocals  and  deep  death  metal  growls,  while  the  lyrics  cover  Celtic  Paganism,  Anti  Christianity  and  Inquisition  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  dark,  heavy,  raw  and  primitive  sound  to  it  while  you  can  still  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  this  recording  along  with  a  couple  of  the  songs  being  long  and  epic  in  length.

  In  my  opinion  Dark  Seal  are  a  very  great  sounding  epic  pagan/black  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Where  Is  Your  God"  "Beast  Among  Us"  and  "Celts".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.

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