Old Wains – Stormheart

I seem to recall having stated, on numerous occasions, that the primary perk of being employed for Metal Revolution is the fact that I am introduced to several bands that somehow manages to fly under my radar otherwise, for whatever reason – Most likely due to my own biases and norms I reckon, being the creature of habit that I am. I stick to what I know, and am mostly introduced to new musical impressions from festivals and gigs these days, since we lost the majority of the purely musical shops, such as the much-revered Virgin Megastore in London. In that regard I am now priviligued by the fact that I have a somewhat curated set of parameters in place, exposing me to the new and fascinating; In this case Old Wains, an old-school Black Metal trio that I have somehow managed to overlook for thirty years in a row.

Since their inception back in 1995, the Russian trio has so far released a grand total of three Demos, one Split and five Full-length records, the newest of which seeing the light of day at the tail end of last year entitled Stormheart. And honestly, it is one of those infuriating situations where this is a band that I would have been subconsciously drawn to years ago had I ever managed to stumble across them on my own.

Musically the band bears strong resemblances to their genre-defined kinsmen of the era (think Immortal, Hate Forest and my much-favoured Isvind), with a relatively slow pace, distorted yet screaming string instruments, layered with a unyielding drum presence. What sets them apart from my ‘usual’ poison if you will (and what draws me towards many of the Black Metal acts of the old eastern bloc) is the inclusion of lyrical themes such as dark heathenism (as opposed to the more pagan approach my own culture/region seem to prefer), the harshness of winter (which, granted, also occasionally pop up in my area) and the by now genre classic of anti-christianity.

In just seven tracks the band succeeds in coming off as unrepentant, relentless and, most importantly of all, still going strong into the modern age.

Forty-two-and-a-half minutes of pure menace, for the old guard of fans.

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