Graveland, 1997. Following The Voice Of Blood!

The tracks, they are all mid-tempo epics, largely passing the eight-minutes mark (without counting the aforementioned interludes); nonetheless, they keep the listener engaged all the way through and they never get boring, thanks to the masterful drumming of Capricornus, that often shifts the pace from his usual 6/8 reversed gallop to fast-paced blast beat sessions, usually matched by the orchestrations and the guitars, to build fantastic and epic crescendos. The songwriting peaks touched by Rob Darken in this record are indeed stellar, and although he did release more great albums later in his career, unfortunately he wasn't able to match the quality of this record again. "Following the Voice of Blood" along with "Immortal Pride" is simply Graveland's magnum opus, a unique, epic and evocative pagan metal record that has really few rivals out there.

Absolutely recommended.

Double LP.
Black vinyl.
Gatefold.