This is a review of a split album between France's Griffon and Darkenhold called "Atra Musica" which will be released in May by Les Acteurs de I'Ombre Productions and we will start off the review with Griffon a band that plays a medieval form of black metal.
Their side of the split starts out with melodic guitar leads and classical guitars while a couple of their tracks are very long and epic in length. Once the music goes into a heavier direction grim yet high pitched black metal screams are added onto the recording and all of the musical instruments have a very powerful sound to them.
Spoken word parts can also be heard in some parts of the music while blast beats can also be heard when the music speeds up. A great amount of melody can also be heard in the guitar riffing along with the songs also bringing in a great mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts.
When tremolo picking is utilized it also gives the songs more of a raw feeling while clean vocals can also be heard briefly and at times the music also adds in elements of medieval folk and classical music along with some keyboards also being utilized at times. The production sounds very professional while the lyrics are written in French and cover legends, history, paganism and religion themes.
In my opinion Griffon are a very great sounding medieval black metal band and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out their side of the split. RECOMMENDED TRACK "Si Rome vient aperir".
Next up is Darkenhold a band that has been featured before in this zine and on this recording moves way from the medieval black metal style and goes into more of a medieval folk direction. .
Their side of the split starts out with some atmospheric soundscapes before adding in some elements of folk music onto their side of the recording. Spoken word parts are also added into some parts of the songs while they also utilize a decent amount of acoustic guitars and folk instruments.
Grim black metal screams are also a very huge part of their recording while all of the music is acoustic. During the faster sections of the songs acoustic style blast beats can also be heard and throughout their side of the recording you can also hear a decent mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts, melodic pagan chants can also be heard briefly. The production sounds very dark while the lyrics cover castles, medieval and fantasy themes.
In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from Darkenhold and if you are a fan of black metal influenced medieval folk music, you should check out their side of the split. RECOMMENDED TRACK "Les Goules et la Tour".
In conclusion I feel this is a very great sounding split and I would recommend it to all fans of medieval black metal and folk music. 8 out of 10.
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