Tverd – Follow The Sun’s Way (2009)

cover

I was completely blown away by this album since the first time I played it, and I have been listening to it ever since. Tverd is a Russian band that emerged from the band Pagan Reign, and they play some epic folk metal unlike other bands.

The band’s sound is extremely bombastic and very rich in folk instruments that had me trying to figure out exactly what instruments they use for a few hours. From start to end this album provides us with epic songs filled with great vocals, an amazing array of instruments and traditional Metal elements.

The Metal foundations of the band’s music are very powerful and present, the guitars sound and the drumming is perfectly created for overlaying lavish instruments and operatic vocals, but they never drown the beauty and purity of the previously mentioned things, they only accent them in perfect harmony.

Another great thing about this band is the wide variety of acoustic passages in the songs that add that extra dimension to the music creating a perfectly balance of harmony and aggressiveness. The combination of Russian folk music with different styles of metal (Power and Black) has been perfectly done in this album, since all songs flow in perfect unison providing an epic aural journey that only a few bands are able to achieve.

Versatility is one of this bands strong attributes since they can seamlessly transfer from an acoustic song to a very fast paced extremely metal oriented song with no effort and without the listener even noticing (like from “When The Steel is Being Broken” to “A Falcon Is Over Rus”). This makes this band a true gem among the hordes of Folk Metal playing bands.

Another thing I really liked in this release is the use of Russian language in songs like “To The Foreign Land” giving the listener a glimpse into authentic Russian folk songs while keeping the band’s Metal sound. The last song however is kind of weird but different since it ends with some kind of electronic stuff that feels out of place.

As a whole “Follow The Sun’s Way” is one of the best Folk Metal albums I’ve heard in all the years that I’ve been listening to Metal, so if you like rich sounding Folk Metal and are interesting in finding something that will blow you away check this album out, you wont be disappointed.

Band: Tverd Album: Follow The Sun’s Way
Label: Wicked Music

Release: 2009

Official Site myspace
Genre: Folk Metal

Country: Russia

Rating: 93/100
Year: 
Label: 
Genre: 

Recent Image Galleries