Metal Reviews

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Ah man you need to do more research on the band, or at least stop stereotyping all Eastern European BM bands. They do not align themselves with Nazism, and even one of the members of the band left partially due to people who don't bother to read their lyrics and pigeon-hole them as NSBM. Eisenslav has one NSBM side project, but is no nazi, but a Ukrainian nationalist, and Viterzgir distances himself from any politics as stated many times in interviews and has many folk-inspired projects (I believe Eisenslav even said Viterzgir was Christian). There is also no "drum set," it is all programmed by Eisenslav. Their "destructive ideology?" Do me a favor. Go to their official website and find lyrics to any of these songs you "reviewed" and point out any Nazism. Last time I checked, Hitler despised the slavs, so it'd be a huge contradiction for them to be Nazis, right? They love Ukraine and honor their ancestors and fallen warriors.

Only thing you got right about the review was how great it is musically. The rest of the discography is a little different, but just as great. If you like this "middle period" of their evolution, try their split with Velimor, it's amazing.

I've read the reviews on this site for over 5 years now, and I remember when there was a huge Burzum debate over his views. I thought just once people would review the music not what internet rumors and misinterpretations are spread around.

I'm also pretty sure you only listened to the intro and one real track, judging by your interpretation of the 'entire' album.

uh oh

It's alright, I'll probably get banned even though not one nazi lyric is in the entire album or in any of Viterzgir's works. Eisenslav's "Volhv" is a little on the edge, but Ukrainian Nationalist =/= Nazi. The whole genocide and wiping out people comment has absolutely nothing to do with the band, but Germany almost 70 years ago (which is downright inexcusable).

Nah, you won't get banned. Rio and I, and many others have hashed out this 'cultural context or not' argument many times before, and I don't recall anyone being banned over it.

Most importantly, this was a great album.

These are the fellows that got beat up that time by Antifa, right? If I remember right, I was going to review them a whiles ago but they seemed far too dodgy.

And no, not a ban-worthy issue.

Band number 1034534... that I should check out. Sounds like folk metal that is actually worth my time.

Yea, they toured with Temnozor and caught some flak. They're not dodgy, but the whole Ukrainian Black Metal scene sure as hell is. With a lot of the bands being NS, when a pagan metal band comes around, there's bound to be a member who has had NS ties. Basically all of the band's instrumentation and concept was done by Viterzgir anyways, who makes it very clear that he is not affiliated with or trying to represent any political ideas.

Great album though, a real classic in my catalog. I'm anxious to see what their new material is going to be like, and from the ambient clips I hear on their site, it's looking promising thus far.

This is getting absurd.
They are not even an NSBM band.

In my defense: I never said they were NSBM. I said that one or more of the members were connected to Nazism. Furthermore, I can surely say that Nazism is a "destructive ideology." But I believe I made it clear that one or more of the members, not the band itself, nor its lyrics. This a strictly Pagan band. However, the back of the cd case (which is at home and I am at college) states that the record label is a proud member of NSBM. Because neither the lyrics nor themes are anywhere close to NSBM, I was sure I was ok with reviewing this. Also, I have listened to this album through about 20 times, and I am more than confident that every note on this album is incredible. The members of this site along with the reviewers have debated NSBM and the bands around it for a long time. Many bands NSBM ties are unclear, so yes, it is definitely not a ban worthy incident, and kudos to you for sharing your opinion and pointing out a mistake.

Side note: my fault on declaring the drums to be live. I did not know they were programmed, even though they sounded too good to be true. And yeah, NSBM or not, this band and this album are incredible.

I also have a theory that the reason why so many Ukrainian acts are NSBM is due to so many of these musicians (Exhibit A: Roman Saenko) seem to hate Polish people. Hitler hated Slavs yes, but it seems that some of these guys just found a mutual group to terrorize. It's really a shame that politics, especially Nazism have crept their way into music for so many years. Music, especially Black Metal, is supposed to be a temporary release from life, a needed catharsis. It sucks that anyone political let alone Neo-Nazi's flooded the genre.

I guess you can say that a some Ukrainian Black Metal musicians are "Ukrainian Nazis," but that has nothing to do with what the "German Nazis" did back in the 1940s. Completely different cases... when was the last time you heard about government-run, systematic genocides committed by Ukrainians?

To say that their flute player is a Nazi who agreed with genocide of jews by Germany in the 1940s is complete bullshit. Hitler was a crazy German dictator back in the day... has nothing to do with Ukraine or Kroda.

To make an analogy, it's like saying that a white person in France who believes in democracy, supports the genocide of Native Americans perpetrated hundreds of years ago. Completely different contexts, completely different countries, but hey.... both believe in Democracy and are white right? Must be the same?

Why even mention it at all?
Dave Holland was convicted of sexual assault against a teenager with learning disabilitys (if I recall coreectly), yet that isn't mentioned as a disclaimer whenever Priest comes up.

It's an ideology; it in and of itself is not "destructive". No more than any other ideas that are confined to paper.
It's only because you and so many others have been conditioned to react to anything associated with the NSDAP (like Pavlov's dogs)... nobody thinks twice about the material by a band like Cattle Decapitation... mass murder, genocide, torture (oh, I get the angle, alright, but it's still fucking retarded; without animal testing, we would not have made the advances in medical research that we have, and sorry, but animals eat meat, and correct me if I am wrong, but are we not animals?)... look at any true crime database, and you will see that torture, murder and all around sadism is a daily reality; is not genocide and all-around sadism against humans a destructive ideology? Isn't that what CD are singing about?
Do you really see another National Socialist uprising happening? I don't, not now and hardly likely, ever.

Yet, one member has ties with the NSBM scene, and it is the first sentence in the review.
It's actually gotten pretty funny, really.

I think a lot of people just assume that NS = The Holocaust.
It can apply to any country or nationality, really, and there is nothing in the 25 Points of the NSDAP that mentiones a final solution, anyway.

The flute player thing was kind of a joke. I wasn't really saying he was a German equated Nazi. And to be honest, I haven't done much research on any Neo-Nazi movement, so I'm not 100% clear on what any Ukrainian NS movement stands for That whole portion of the beginning of the interview was just a back story. What matters here is how fantastic this album is. I just wish when I wrote a controversial review I wouldn't be ripped a new one. But when meddling with a band whose only undisputed facet is how amazing their music is I'm bound to be mauled by you guys. I respect how intelligent your argument is, and you point out some valid facts. I guess I just generalized Nazi's across the world as a unified front. The NS bums here in the states believe in the same crap as the Germans did, they just apply it to more groups here. But, I'd really like if we abandoned any debate as to the political leanings of Kroda, and just laid back and enjoyed what they have recorded for us.

Ukrainians "hate" Polish people because of a blood feud that goes back hundreds of years. To be Ukrainian was to have your identity denied by Poles on the one hand and Russians on the other, with both elite groups often scapegoating the Jews for the Ukrainians to rage at instead. Cultural context leads me to suggest that a Ukrainian to be ultra-nationalist is very different from an American or German or Englishman. Simply stated: to call a Ukrainian NS is a gross oversimplification, and should be avoided unless the band is proudly proclaiming it like Nokturnal Mortum does.

If you have more interest on the Ukrainian/Polish/Russian problem, I'd be happy to send you my own work on it.

Well, a distinction between fierce nationalism and calling for the destruction of another group of people should be made.

Which would support the fact that so many E. European bands are nationalist.

Certainly, when Germans, Poles, Russians, and Hungarians made it historical habit to deny many of their identities.