Wednesday, 5 January 2022

#9 - Top of 2020

Romuvos -  The Baltic Crusade (dangus productions)   

For the fans of pure FOLK metal, 2020 was a great year as these pagans from Lithuania released their 3rd full length album, The Baltic Crusade. Romuvos are an excellent example of a band which knows how to mix  EPIC melodies with strong male vocals and folk sounds including a range of instruments such as flutes, bagpipes, mouth harps and nyckelharpa. Straight from the first song, you know this is going to be a great album as "Saule 1236" hits all the right points with amazing sounds and its lyrics falling within the album concept inspired by historical events entailing the fight of pagans against Christianity which ended with the Christianisation of Lithuania (or Courland as described in the lyrics) in 1387. The chronicle carries on with the more melodic "Memel 1257"  and the battle-anthem ""Skuodas 1259" (a personal favourite and worth checking out for fans of epic sing along choruses) which continue the saga of Romuva in line with the Romuva movement back to Baltic pagan traditions and customs. There are refreshing changes of pace from more mellow folk like "Pokarwis 1261" and a healthy dose of melodic guitars mixed with other instruments in the title song "The Baltic Crusade" that keeps you on your feet waiting for the next track. Overall, this is an album worth checking out both in terms of musicianship as it is packed with epic chants and folk instruments without losing their heavy sound, but also in terms of lyrical themes on the interesting tale of pagans of Romuva that is not well known.


95/100

 

Below is official music video for "Memel 1257".





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