Духи Предков

Dukhi Predkov is a newcomer in the folk metal scene, coming from the endless source for this genre, Russia. While they were formed in 2005, they never released anything until now. Their name (“Духи предков” in Russian) means Spirits of the Ancestors and they call their music as pagancore. Recently they signed a deal with Metalism Records and just released their debut album “Terra Ursorum”.

The band consists of 6 members and their music has many different influences. I don’t know if the term pagancore is the appropriate to describe them. But, of course, metalcore and pagan metal are very dominant in their sound along with other influences. Folk tunes and instruments (especially flutes), as well as symphonic melodic synths play a key role in their music. This combination creates a great variety in their songs. There are many parts (or whole songs) where they play typical folk pagan metal, combining black metal growls with female and clean male vocals or even choirs; and other parts where their sound has a more aggressive, rhythmic and less melodic approach and you can hear to their almost thrashcore influences and death metal colored vocals. So actually, the term folk pagancore metal is more accurate. It’s obvious the band tries to experiment and the result is very interesting, especially for a debut. They want to build a personal sound, but I think they need a better balance in their sound in order to have a more solid atmosphere throughout the whole album. I believe they have to work more on the merging of all their “core” influences with their folk metal. There are songs like the opening track where they blend all these styles skillfully, but there are also a few songs where one genre dominates over the other and you think you are listening to a different band. Of course the overall result is more than satisfying, with many nice ideas and they convince me they could do even better things in the future. Their production is more than ok, somewhere in the middle of their influences: neither too “polished” nor underground. The title “Terra Ursorum” means “Land of Bears” in Latin and the concept of the album deals with a mythical island inhabited by people that worshiped the bear. All the lyrics are in Russian and they can be found in the booklet.

Fans of folk pagan metal shouldn’t overlook Dukhi Predkov. The album is released in a beautiful digibook by Metalism Records with bonus multimedia photos section and it’s limited to 500 copies. You can get a taste of their music here: http://www.myspace.com/dukhi-predkov and if you like what you hear, the best way to buy the album is through their label’s eBay store: http://www.ebay.com/sch/metalismrec/m.html

dimiarch (8/10) http://www.heavymetalcosmos.eu/en/reviews/359-d/1986-dukhi-predkov--terra-ursorum