Walknut
Graveforests and Their Shadows

Strange project with two fixed members, Stringsskald and Ravnaskrik, and guests from very important bands in the Russian Black Metal scene: Forest, Nitberg, and Temnozor.

The work is entirely inspired by nature and forests, both in the lyrics and in the atmospheres. There is a lot of technical skill, and you can feel it, but it's excellently mixed with cruel riffs, extremely fast-paced drums, hypnotic guitar overdubs that dominate the entire album. The scream is exaggerated and slightly effected to give the sensation of an echo in the void. The inspiration often seems to be drawn from Drudkh, although there is obviously no comparison. The sensation of being in vast open and flat spaces is quite similar though, and, with solos entirely missing, melodic choices are often made by juxtaposing purely Black passages with slower parts.

Half of the tracks are instrumental, while the other three are long and dedicated to ancient Slavic paganism, a child of beliefs related to nature. "Graveforests and Their Shadows" presents itself as an excellent album, opting for quality, which makes it not tedious and decidedly atmospheric, thanks to imperceptible keyboard parts that will never invade the listening experience and that must be sought out in the dark, given their subtlety.

The intro "Hrimfaxi" aims to give them the space they won't have throughout the album, just to gently start a work that will prove to be angry and ruthless, already from "Motherland Ostenvegr" onwards, the second track. Indeed, the not at all hypocritical intentions of the album emerge immediately, pushed by a desire to clearly and immediately play every technical card without holding back, there is no time or space for moments of rest, to breathe: it starts and travels at high levels both in terms of tempo and riffs. The sensation of being lost will hover throughout the album, making each track difficult to separate from the entire work.

The melodic parts and the combinations of riffs intertwine perfectly like thousands of branches overhead, leaving little room for the light they feed on, and transporting us unknowingly towards "Come, Dreadful Ygg". Still, over 10 minutes of the harshness of the coldest and most ungrateful riffs of which the two are capable. The drum parts become increasingly complex and driving, slowing down for a few brief minutes, but then restarting at full force as soon as possible. A snowfall perfectly rendered in music. "The Midnightforest of The Runes" seems like an interlude, but it is crafted and played with the same energetic rage as the rest of the album. In "Grim Woods", the guitars reach the pinnacle of sadism, demonstrating the ability to perpetuate the increase in tension felt from the start. The ability to vary throughout the eleven minutes of this track makes the studio work truly appreciable, as one does not experience a sensation of cold in the heart, but directly on the skin, as if wishing a slow and painful death. "Skinfaxi" concludes the first work by Walknut, remaining cohesive with the ungenerous intentions of the entire album: the decision is to provoke and be aggressive from the start, and it seems never to waver, although the end of the album eventually comes.

I make a small note on the band and the Russian ones involved in the project: besides stylistically, they are all projects dedicated to extolling Aryanism, Nazism, and racial violence/hatred. Almost all Black Metal is involved in such ideologies, starting with the founders of the genre itself, and though it is evidently contradictory, that's how it is. I am not talking politics here, and I don't care about moralizing or boycotts that might be intended to actually hurt someone and not the music. The album does not speak of Nazism nor related themes, only of nature; the lyrics are clear, but perhaps the music more so. The warning I give is for some swastikas that might be found on the cover, as they are affiliated with a Russian Black Metal label, since Russian Black is Nazi, but I believe it is only more explicitly so than 90% of it in the rest of the world.