Since Eastern Front will be playing in in London on Sunday (alongside The Furious Horde and more), I thought it would be a good idea to write something about their album, “Blood on Snow”. I’m full of great ideas, me.
This isn’t really a new release, so I’m going to treat it as a Re-discovering Old Music review. Although, in fairness, it’s not that old! Not that it makes a huge amount of difference…
“Blood on Snow” houses a collection of tracks that are at home on the battlefield. They are grim, angry and dangerous; dressed in bloodied uniforms and armed to the teeth. However, Eastern Front do not rely on sheer ferocity alone – there are also melodic interludes (“Dvenadtzat Kilometrov Ot Moskvy”), perhaps signaling a lull in the battle; or the calm before the storm. This results in an intense and powerful listening experience. The combination of different tempos and atmospheres make the album feel like a living, breathing entity – rather than a two-dimensional record that can be instantly forgotten about.
The riffs alternate between being seductively hypnotic and terrifyingly savage, and the vocals display an impressive range (this is particularly awe-inspiring for an extreme metal band). It would probably be clichéd to say that the drumming was like machine gun fire… but that really is the case here. Not only does it drive the music along and hook you in, but it also (once again) makes you feel like you’re in battle, hiding in a trench, gun at the ready.
Eastern Front’s “Blood On Snow” has the makings of a classic Black Metal album and is well-worth your hard-earned pennies.
Sidenote: Eastern Front are NOT a political band. I just wanted to make that clear.
Rating: 96%
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[...] do it now! Their album, “Blood on Snow”, is superb (you can read my thoughts on it here). On this occasion, due to the temperature of the tent and the amount of people in it, the [...]