Reviewed - 06/15/05

Mirovozzrenie
[Oriana Records]

Back in the mid to late 90's when I first heard Nokturnal Mortum, I never would have thought that they would have turned into one of the finest examples of Folk Black Metal the world has to offer. Those early albums were good, but the cheap sounding synths dragged their sound down in my opinion. Steeped in political controversy at that point, the band changed their sound even more by the time "NeChrist" rolled around, and somehow became even more controversial. Their N.S.B.M. alliances were more blatant than ever before, but what I loved about "NeChrist" was the fact that the band finally became a full fledged Folk Metal band because they used a lot of traditional instruments when they recorded that album. After that the band laid dormant for a few years re-releasing their older albums with a remastered sound and a few cover songs. "The Taste Of Victory" then came out, and was promoted as an EP"teaser" for their new upcoming full length "Weltanschauung", and at well over forty minutes it was an EP that was longer than most full length albums are! That brings us up to the new album, and after a seemingly almost never-ending search to find the C.D. in the USA, I can finally listen to it and comment on it. Man, was this album a bitch to track down!

First thing that you'll notice is the name of the album, which may look unfamiliar to you. I tried and tried to find an official explanation to what "Mirovozzrenie" is, but all I could gather on my own is that "Mirovozzrenie" is the Oriana Records released Russian version of "Weltanschauung". "Weltanschauung" was released by No Colours Records. What are the differences? Hell if I know, but I do know that the sticker on the cover of "Mirovozzrenie" says that the lyrics and music on this album are a bit different than what is found on "Weltanschauung". I have no idea what those differences are though as I haven't heard the No Colours Records version! I plan to though, just to hear for myself what these differences are. I have heard rumors that this Russian version is a lot better than the No Colours version because "Mirovozzrenie" is sing in the band's mother tongue and it's more powerful than the English vocals on "Weltanschauung", but I can't confirm this. The music on "Mirovozzrenie" may sound familiar to people that have heard "The Taste Of Victory" because a few songs off that EP are on this album. The style of music you heard on the EP you can expect on the full length, only a whole lot more of it. The Black Metal aspects are a lot more subdued and melodic than their older albums, which is a big plus in my opinion. Sure, there are some fast blast-beat type stuff, but even when the drums are hammering away like that and the guitars are like chainsaws ripping through your ears, they still all have this traditional Folk feel to them. The Folk aspect of "Mirovozzrenie" is phenomenal! There are a multitude of traditional instruments to be found on this album like the violin, mouth harp, bagpipes and flutes just to name a few! And get this, there's an ocarina on the album! This is (I believe) the first Folk Metal album I've heard using an ocarina, and it kicks ass. It also makes me want to play The Legend Of Zelda for some reason. The band enlisted the help of six guest musicians to help out with all of the traditional instruments, and all of them work together wonderfully and came up with some of the most interesting melodies I've ever heard. This is a proud sounding album too. There’s a lot of battle sounds and sound samples taken from various nature scenes here to make it sound like that. It just has this "going into battle" feeling that gets your adrenaline going. Simply wonderful!

The lyrics on the album I can't comment on at all as they are all in Ukranian/Russian and are written out in a Cyrillic alphabet. If you know anything about the band at all, you can probably guess the lyrics are similar to all of their older albums. You know, a few songs about White Pride, a few songs about nature, etc.. Vocalist Knjaz Varggoth has always been one of my favorite vocalists, but lately he has learned to combine raw Black Metal and Folk vocal styles so well that he is now one of my top five favorite vocalists of all time! His vocals can be pissed off and angry, yet passionate and stirring at the same time. His clean styled vocals are something to hear, and though he doesn't use this style a lot, when he does sing this way it really does give the music a beautiful respite from the rawer parts of the album.

I've heard that producing and mixing Folk Metal albums can be a bitch because you not only have to worry about the guitars, bass, drums and vocals sounding good, but like on this album you have ten or so other traditional instruments you also have to put into the mix. All of that is extremely hard to put together without having one of the many instruments overpower the sound of the others, but Nokturnal Mortum did a fine job at it on "Mirovozzrenie". There's a nice bassiness to the album which I like, plus the traditional instruments and keyboards are right where they should be. I love traditional instruments, but if an album has a tin whistle or violin so loud in the mix that it pierces my eardrums, it becomes annoying. Luckily, this is not the case for "Mirovozzrenie".

The packaging and layout is perfect in every single way! It's almost a "deluxe" packaging, if you will. The cover art I don't quite understand, but it looks great. Is that a Black Metaller's arm? Is he dead? Your guess is as good as mine! This is I think at least the third different incarnation of the Nokturnal Mortum logo that I've seen over the years, and I like this one the best as it's more traditional looking with some dragon heads and knotwork art intertwined through the whole thing. The lyrics are all printed within the booklet, but it's written using the Cyrillic alphabet, so they are all lost on me. In fact, everything in the booklet is written this way and I can't read a damn thing. But I like it this way. It adds a sense of mystery to the whole thing. To round out the packaging we are treated to quite a few band photos and photos of various landscapes and monuments.

I'll tell you what, this is the hardest damn review I've ever did for Metal Coven. It took me half a day just to find an image of the Russian version of this album to use in my review! The band has an official Website, but it hasn't been updated in years, plus the Oriana Records Website is down. It took me forever to find the image and an English translated tracklisting (my PC doesn't type in Cyrillic - sorry!), but it was worth it. I've talked to a lot of people out there that haven't liked the direction Nokturnal Mortum has taken recently. I guess they are the ones into the raw Black Metal, eh? But I for the life of me don't get that because the band's musicianship and professionalism has done nothing but get better. Sure, they aren't as fast as they used to be, but damn... with all of these traditional instruments they sure as hell are darker and more epic sounding than they ever were in the past. When it comes to Nokturnal Mortum, I love their new style the most, and "Mirovozzrenie" is in my opinion their best album to date. I really hope this is the style of music they continue to make because I couldn't find a single fault with this album. I'm sure some of you older fans of the band will not like this, as well as people that despise N.S.B.M., but for everyone else I highly recommend you add "Mirovozzrenie" to your collection as soon as you can. If you're having doubts about parting with your money, maybe the fact that the album has a running time of seventy four minutes will help you make your decision. And it's seventy four minutes of music, no fillers! This year has already been a great year for Folk/Viking/Pagan Metal, but with "Mirovozzrenie" it's become the best year in the last five years easily, and we still have half a year left!. It'll be hard for any band to top this album during the rest of the 2005.