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Kalmankantaja / Hadak Ura – Kalmankantaja / Hadak Ura [Split]

kalmankantaja / hadak ura – kalmankantaja / hadak ura [split]

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Although Kalmankantaja beats Hadak Ura in terms of volume, both acts are quite prolific and dish out new material to followers of their music with great regularity. It is therefore not an illogical thought that the two entities would one day share a release together, this becomes a reality on this untitled, but nicely artwork-trimmed, split release that sees the light of day on both cassette tape and CD through Death Hymn and Wolfspell Records.

Finnish Kalmankantaja kicks off with around twenty minutes of music that mastermind Grim666 produced solely by himself. The man is like a musical chameleon, ever-changing and adjusting to its surrounding, resulting in almost all of his releases sounding distinctly different from each other. At times the music can sound atmospheric, then folky or, on the contrary, remarkably fierce. And on these tracks of this split release, those three elements come together well. Again, the ever-present keyboards play an important role in the moody and atmospheric feel the music encompasses, but the at times compelling melodies have an overtly folky character. For a nice and convincing contrast, the vocals are slightly overdriven, not too far removed from Ildjarn’s rough and raucous work, and give a slightly rawer nature to the music.

The closing tracks are Hadak Ura’s, an American one-man band which despite a totally different cultural and geographical background, does share similar musical principles to that of Kalmankantaja. With its repetitive, hypnotic riffs and mesmerising melodies, Hadak Ura’s Raw Black Metal comes across as almost dreamy at times. But beneath this dreaminess lies a deep-seated and romantic longing for old times, with the atmospheric melody becoming the very means to put you on that journey into the past. The whole thing, including creaky vocals, has a very Scandinavian feel but also harbours a distinctly Eastern European identity, corresponding to the (probable) Hungarian origins of Koppany Geczy, the lone inspirer of Hadak Ura. By way of closing, we are treated to a beautiful piece of instrumental folksy Ambient in the form of ‘Upon a Bed of Pine Needles’. With some nice clean guitar strumming, flowing leads and some enchanting keyboards we are quietly drifting towards the very end of this rewarding split release.

Hadak Ura

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