Žrec – Žertva (2008)

Featuring 3 members of Moravská Zima, a Czech Black Metal band, today we have Žrec and their latest album “Žertva”. Žrec plays a mixture of Folk and Pagan Metal that focuses more on the Folk side of things. We particularly love bands like Žrec that play Folk Metal where you can easily identify the region they are from if you pay close attention.

Žrec does a great job in crafting catchy and effective tunes that will resonate in your head for quite a while after listening to this solid release. We particularly enjoy that while Žrec has the traditional folk elements with the violin, flute, and pipes, they still show a broad diversity within the songs allowing them to never get old and tired, like many Folk Metal albums get after 5 minutes.

The ‘Pagan Metal’ songs are a bit faster and have harsh vocals, they also provide a nice change of pace in this album, and allow it to flow nicely. We love these changes that allow the listener to keep guessing what is next keeping them engaged. Most Folk Metal releases we usually listen to, send us into a violing/hurdy gurdy/flute coma after 20 minutes into the album. This does not happen with “Žertva” at all.

Vocally, we particularly enjoy the clean vocals through this release and the Czech lyrics, giving that extra originality to the music that German or other Folk bands lose while trying to sing in English. Musically, all instruments are very well mixed together and craft solid songs. While these songs are very well crafted they are also simpler than songs by Eluveitie and other Folk Metal bands. This makes them more accessible and less saturated with tons of instruments and crap, making us enjoy them more easily than the overly complicated ones.

One of the interesting things of this album is that the song 'Nebeské Stríbro Perunovo' is a cover of Nokturnal Mortum's 'Perun's Celestial Silver' but with Czech lyrics, and if we wouldn’t have read this somewhere, we would have never imaged it.

“Žertva” provides us with over 40 minutes of solid Folk Metal music (and some Pagan Metal songs). If you are looking for a worthy newcomer to your Folk Metal collection, definitely check this band out, you will not regret it.

Release: June 2008

Country: USA