The thundering of hooves sends dust flying across the field! I say this because the second album from Latvia's SKYFORGER quite literally bowls you over with its power and ferocity. A picture materializes before your eyes: night, an ancient oak grove overgrown with bearded ferns, silent as the grave. We step into a clearing — here, amid honeysuckle and thistle, stands a terrifying idol: eyes ablaze, enormous fangs bared. Before the idol is an altar, over which a wretched sorcerer hunches, bent double. In a strained, hoarse voice he utters words of incantation, and suddenly — a flash. With the final sounds of the intro, the earth splits open and we behold a pack of demons, snarling and shrieking, six-armed and three-eyed. These are the ones who will pass judgment tonight! Recklessly, to the sounds of SKYFORGER's rip-roaring fury, they pummel everything in sight, whooping like bandits, racing like the wind. All in the name of Uzins — the almighty god of thunder. This new troll's tale from Slavic lands can hold its own against most Western folk metal acts. The quality is at an absolute peak: the sound, the music, the artwork — all top-notch. The closest comparison would be our own SEVERNYE VRATA, though lyrics in Latvian tip extra points in favor of the Latvians. If only the album were about ten minutes shorter, it would have been a masterpiece outright.
