Showing posts with label Bolg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bolg. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Bolg/Where Death Dwells/2025 Full Length Review

 


  Bolg  are  a  band  from  Bulgaria  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  and  on  this  recording  plays  a  very  old  school  form  of  black  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2025  album  "Where  Death  Dwells".


  Dark  soundscapes  start  off  the  album  before  going  into  a  heavier  direction  while  all  of  the  musical  instruments  also  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.  Melodies  are  also  added  into  some  of  the  guitar  riffing  and  when  the  music  speeds  up  a  great  amount  of  tremolo  picking  and  blast b eats  can  be  heard  which  also  gives  the  songs  more  of  a  raw  feeling.


  Vocals  are  mostly  high  pitched  black  metal  screams  while  the  music  is  also  very  heavily  rooted  in  the  mid  90's  era.  Some  of  the  songs  also  add  in  a  good  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  the  guitar  solos  and  leads  also  being  done  in  a  very  dark  yet  melodic  style  when  they  are  utilized.


  On  this  recording  Bolg  plays  a  very  fast  and  aggressive  style  of  black  metal  that  is  very  heavily  rooted  in  the  mid  90's  era.  The  production  sounds  very  raw  and  old  school  while  the  lyrics  are  written  in  Bulgarian  and  cover  death  and  darkness  themes  with  some  inspiration  from  the  Black  Sea  Legend.  


  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Bolg  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  raw  and  old  school  black  metal,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Unlife"  "Where  Death  Dwells"  and  "Homo  Homini  Lupus  Est".  8  out  of  10.


  

Email: Bolg@mail.bg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bolg.Band/

The Metal Archives: https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Bolg

Bandcamp: https://bolg.bandcamp.com/album/where-death-dwells

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDLThLkAveyEGPISjZBJpeA

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1Mk3R9Ya5FeoMbLJ7dTepx    


    

Monday, February 3, 2020

Bolg Interview

For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Тhe band was formed in 2003 in a small town, called Radomir. The black metal wasn't popular there back then, but we wanted to have the band. In the first year of our existence we created a split album together with another Bulgarian band - Exile. The basic idea of Bolg was to be a very old school BM band with raw sound, but in the end we have found another path for our music.
In 2018 you had released your first full length album, musically how does it differ from your previous split and demo?
As far as we’re concerned, it is not much different from what we have released before. It is just that few members of the band changed trough the years, so therefore their own style was incorporated in the overall performance. The songs in the album differ in the feeling of speed. There are very fast songs, followed by some slower songs or songs the speedy parts of which is followed by slower melodic parts. It was the same in the split album. The general difference is that the sound is better and of course it should be, 15 years later ...
There was also no music being released in between 2004 and 2017, can you tell us a little bit more about what was going on during that time frame?
As we said, trough time several members of the band have changed. Some of us moved to another city, our vocalist Krum left Bulgaria for a while. Finally in the beginning of 2018 we released the full-length album. By the way the album was recorded in 2016, but we needed time to fix some small things and find a label.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the lyrical topics and subjects the band has explored so far with the music?
The lyrics are created by us and some friends. Our ex-basist Petar still writes sick lyrics for us, as well. The texts are in general in Bulgarian and sometimes in English.
The songs touch on historical, antihuman and antireligion topics. An interesting song is “Поквара” (means "Depravity"). It is a story about the brave crusaders going to set free the Holy Places, but before that they decide to attack Bulgaria and they are smashed by the Bulgarian army. A special "tool" has been used to win in the battle, one with hook at the end, preventing the opponent to retaliate once fallen on the ground.
Another interesting song is “Кървъв Идол” (means “Bloody idol”). There is a "tradition" called "Pig's weddding", which consists in butchering a pig and using it’s blood. It’s held before X-mass and in this period all the people are slaves to the bloody pig idol.
I know that the bands name means 'wolf' in Bulgarian, how does this name fir in with the musical style that you play?
There are many legends about the wolves. They are very strong and beautiful creatures, they bring the cold breath of the night , they work together or hunt alone, atack aggressively or stay quiet and sneak.
We try to make music wolf-alike - strong, fast and powerful, sometimes melodic and smashing slow.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?
The Artwork is work of our friend from Moonring Design, who created it for our first EP.
The religion is a plague, the Bolg’s album is the plague vaccine, that’s the idea of the cover pictures.
What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Maybe our best show was in the Bulgarian town Dimitrovgrad - it's THE "Mecca" of this horrible music called Pop-Folk. We played in a small Black/Death festival in an underground club, where the stage was in a cage of chains. We have been playing inside the cage, while people were climbing up the chains arround us. At one point, we realized that the cage is just to be demolished.
Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
For now we don't have plans for touring outside Bulgaria.
If you want to see us playng, come to Sofia, Bulgaria. On 7th of March 2020 we are playing with the greek band Nihilism. Bolg will also play on “Broken Silence Black Death Metal Fest” 2020 together with Horna, Mork, Kawir, Liquid Graveyard and more, so we will be expecting you on the BLACKsee coast.

On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?
We've heard good words for "Plague Vaccine" from different people around the world. We want to believe, that people like us, especially when we are on the stage. In general, we think the reaction of our music is good.
What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?
The vocalist Krum and the drummer Kamael are playing only in Bolg. Our guitarist – Asen, has his own project Древна (Drevna), so these days he is preparing the second album of the band.
A. Catacombs (bassist) is involved in three other bands - Mass Grave, Axecutor and Plague.
When can we expect newer music and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We are working on new songs and new cover songs now, we hope to release new EP or album this year. We will keep doing speed and  powerful black metal… till death.
What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Of course, we like the old black metal bands - Emperor, Dissection, Marduk, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Beherit, Satyricon. They gave us the path of our music. Furthermore, we like different metal styles as death, doom, trash, grind, as well.

Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Come see us on the stage. Support black metal and support your local bands. Cheers and Horns up!!!

Monday, December 16, 2019

Bolg/Plague Vaccine/Hass Weg Productions/2018 CD Review


  Bolg  are  a  band  from  Bulgaria  that  plays  an  old  school  form  of  black  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2018  album  "Plague  Vaccine"  which  was  released  by  Hass  Weg  Productions.

  Clean  playing  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  melodic  guitar  leads  a  few  seconds  later.  The  heavier  riffs  also  add  in  a  decent  amount  of  melody  while  clean  vocals  can  also  be  heard  on  a  few  tracks  and  when  the  music  speeds  up  a  great  amount  of  tremolo  picking and  blast  beats  can  be  heard  which  also  gives  the  songs  more  of  a  raw  feeling.

  Vocals  are  mostly  high pitched  black  metal  screams  along  with  the  songs  also  adding  in  a  good  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts.  All  of  the  musical  instruments  on  the  recording  also  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  as  well  as  the  music  also  adding  in  a  great amount  of  90's  influences while  also  having  more  of  a  modern  touch.

  Bolg  plays  a  style  of  black  emtal  that  is  very  fast,  raw,  aggressive,  melodic  and  old  school  sounding,  the  production  sounds  very  raw  and  heavy  while  the  lyrics  are  written  in a   mixture  of  Bulgarian  and  English  and  cover  historical,  anti  religion  and  anti  human  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Bolg  are  a  very  great  sounding  old  school  black  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  recording.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Поквара"  "Romans"  and  "Beyond  The  Visions  Of  Death".  8 out  of  10.

https://www.facebook.com/Bolg.Band/?fref=ts
https://bolg.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znkXydonTkE