Beorn - Triumph of the Will

BEORN - Triumph of the Will (DARK OMENS Production CD 2017)

Despite how attractive it is, you don't always need fancy ritualistic image, hoods, skulls, candles or whatever else to bring attention. Sometimes your great music is enough to make the best impression. Polish Beorn image and style are simple, but the band plays some old school black metal, which infected me from the very first listen. "Triumph of the Will" is sort of compilation with two 2015 Beorn recordings: "Awakening" demo and "Warriors of Fullmoon" EP. Both recording complete each other very well and together these are some worthy 45 minutes, believe me. 

I have to say that when I started to listen to "Triumph of the Will", I was quite surprised. I expected to hear some very raw and primitive black metal, but Beorn is completely different, although their music is soaked in the traditional, old school means. Stylistically you can find influences from bands like early Samael, Burzum, even a bit of the likes of Christ Agony or Graveland. But "Triumph of the Will" is not only far from being just useless copy, but it can surprise with great songwriting, performance and sound quality. The music is often quite majestic and almost epic, but it's also dynamic and varied, with not just slow or mid paced parts, but more aggressive and faster songs as well, to get more impressive result. There are harsh riffs, but you can find here also few melodic fragments and even some keyboards, which give deeper and darker atmosphere. And even longer compositions like "Wilczyca" do not bore, because there's always enough variety and good riffage to give an interesting result. I have to say that I especially liked these more atmospheric and more obscure songs like "The Ritual of Forgotten Shadows", which is just amazing song and for me the best piece of the whole CD. The first part of it is very calm and atmospheric, later it turns into more aggressive stuff, with almost Darkthrone'ish riffage, but it sounds godly! And also "In the Arms of Madness" is a real highlight of the album for me. Of course, when it's fast and nasty, it's also damn good like "Victory Over Dying Sun" - song, which again is far from being one dimensional and where you will find many tempo and atmosphere variations. 

What else can I write about Beorn? Well, I definitely like the vocals of the man, who's behind this project - sorry, but I have no idea who he is, so I won't give you his name. But he's got great throat and his raspy, harsh voice fits this sort of black metal perfectly. I am also surprised how well it all sounds, the production is just fantastic. It's harsh, but clean and powerful, and even though the songs are from two different recording sessions, there's not much difference in the quality, which is great. So, I can truly say that this CD is very recommended and for me it's a real highlight of the Dark Omens Production roster. 

Standout tracks: "The Ritual of Forgotten Shadows", "In the Arms of Madness", "Wilczyca" 

Final rate: 85/100