Sword of Revenge

Many times while searching my record case in order to find something to listen, usually I tend to choose albums that I had purchased some time ago and I hadn’t paid almost any attention to them until I forgot them. So recently I came across “Sword of Revenge”, the second full length album of Andras from Germany that, as you understood, when I bought it back in 1999 when it was released, I listened to it two-three times and then I never dealt with it again. The band in this album consists of four members, while the release contains fifteen compositions two of which are atmospheric introductions played by the keyboards. As you imagine already by the very beautiful cover, the music of the album is harsh, brutal but absolutely epic Black Metal but maybe not in the way that we are used to by other bands of the genre.

For sure this album has its own elements and personality. The riffs that we’ll come across mainly are mid tempo, with clear influences by the classic Heavy/Epic sound of the 80’ies, but without missing the fast and harsh Black Metal, brutal parts or the slow passages. First of all the very interesting and inspired riffs, their variety and the tracks’ structure which is perfect, make the compositions very interesting while in one hour of music there are very few moments which can be tedious for the listener. The band has done a very good job regarding all instruments and especially the guitars. Their sound is distorted and harsh. Technically they are perfect delivering the riffs with accuracy, while they don’t miss in emotions. The sound of the bass is audible and its lines are quite interesting both when it fills the composition both when it takes the leading role. On the contrary, although there are no mistakes and the sound of the drums is very good, their lines seemed to me quite simple and in various parts they didn’t fill the sound well.

The vocals are typical, harsh Black Metal vocals, with the expression and the feeling that it should have, very good but not anything that we haven’t listened before. Finally, the keyboards are used in very few parts, have beautiful epic lines, they create images and they make the feeling more intense. Another strong point of the album is its sound. The production is somehow bassy and absolutely clean, something that may not remind of Black Metal but it fits perfectly to the style of the music. Also the mixture balances the sound of all the instruments so that the listener can listen to each one clearly but without losing the massive character of the compositions. The lyrics are written in English but they are not contained in the album. By the titles and the cover I understand that they are epic and they refer to battles, swords etc.

So the conclusion is that the listener has to give again the opportunity to an album that they thought it was moderate or bad, to prove its value, if there is any. The second album of Andras is very interesting and satisfactory concerning its size. It will surely satisfy the fans of the epic sound. Buy it or at least listen to it.