On April 25th, Invictus Productions is proud to present the debut album of Slovakia’s Malokarpatan, Stridžie dni. Originally self-released digitally last year, Stridžie dni soon charmed Invictus so thoroughly and profoundly that the label just had to release it in physical format. Featuring members of Temnohor and Remmirath, Malokarpatan plays, in their own words, “old-school black metal influenced by the ’80s and early ’90s classics like Venom, Mercyful Fate, Bathory, Barathrum, etc.” That much may be true, but it only tells half the story. The filthy-yet-atmospheric sound the trio employs is half steeped in primitivism and half steeped in a strange, sincere desire to push black metal in a weirder, more personal directions. For one, the lyrics across Stridžie dni are sung in Western Slovak dialect and deal with local grotesque myths and lore, ranging from folklore heroes through rural witchcraft to beastly drunkenness. For another, Malokarpatan utilize seemingly direct, immediately headbanging tropes passed down from the ancient well of Heavy Metal Wisdom, but up-end them with swirling, delirium-inducing leads that puts their melodicism in another league altogether. It’s a continual tug-of-war between “classic” and “iconoclastic,” between “on the surface” and “far below that surface,” and all pulled without the least bit of self-consciousness or cloying insincerity: simply, Malokarpatan are just being, and Stridžie dni simply EXISTS. Then again, vanguard Eastern Bloc bands like Root and Master’s Hammer did much the same thing, when far fewer eyes were on them, and they etched their names into black metal legendry. With Stridžie dni, the three gentleman of Malokarpatan are certainly on the path…and littering it with beer cans and witches’ brooms along the way. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Malokarpatan’s Stridžie dni
1. Metelica a kúrnava sa žene nad krajem
2. Kýho besa mi to tá stará ohyzdná striga do pohára nalála
3. Na kríllach cemnoty do horských úbočí zostupuje posol moru a hniloby
4. O víne, kterak učený Hugolín Gavlovič z Horovec vyprával
5. Stridžie dni, kedy neradno po slnka západe vychádzat, ni perí drápat
6. Starý z hory, čo zver svoju budzogánem pobil
7. O jedném, čo pijatikou rozum si pomúcil a nakonec v chléve prenocovat musel
8. Z jazera ozruta, s volíma rohama a telom chlapiny
9. Popolvár najväčší na svete, šarkanobijca a bohatier
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