Finland's Solgrav perform gloomy northern woods metal and after three promising demos, have now released their debut album 'Auringon hauta'. Both the band's name and the album's title mean "sun's grave". Cover art is more than suitable for the band, I think.

The band's pagan metal is based on black metal, of course. The band also travels thru ye olde English metal (fantastic instrumental 'Lopun alku' simply remind me of old Peaceville bands), Finnish 1990s legends such as Amorphis and never bands Moonsorrow and Finntroll in their music. Folky elements are created with mouth-harp, kantele, piano and acoustic guitars, also during metal parts, not only on instrumentals. Earthy atmosphere is created with infrequently used samples. As the whole, the album has enough variety. Solgrav have created music, that sounds enough of their own alloy, if full of familiar elements. Vocals are angry growling, varying from black metal style to very powerful grunting. Lyrics are all in Finnish and praise nature, which human race rapes and exploits without any caring.

The band have expanded into a five-piece and this can be heard, even though the sound is somewhat lame. Instruments and vocals are recorded with varying volume levels, making eg. drums (especially snare) often drown under other sounds, creating a bit chaotic listening experience. The vocals are usually on the top of everything else. The sound is spacious, definitely raw, but also rather powerless. As usually, pieces which include piano and other non-electric instruments, sound much better and clearer. Point for the use of authentic instruments, not synthesized. Actually, the poorish production proved to be a small obstacle at first, but headphones saved the day and now the album begins to sound itself, not another *insert a name of some popular studio here* production.

Good debut album for Solgrav and good debut for label Nocturnal Woodlands Productions. It took long to get released, but now the wait is over. The band sounded promising on their demos, and on this album, they redeem most of the promises. Maybe the language is a barrier to someone, but I suggest every pagan metal freak to try this. It's the message, mood and metal what it's all about, right?! Support Finnish metal and get this album now.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
12/21/2005 01:09