Vehemency There is no question of Viterzgir’s musical and compositional abilities, knowing his background in such acts as Kroda and Dragobrath, so it is unsurprising how well Viter’s debut EP ”Dzherelo” takes the listener to the beautiful landscapes of Ukrainian forests and mountains. Melting together traditional instruments, folk metal and black metal, Viter’s sound is undoubtedly close to Negură Bunget and, especially in the masculine clean vocal department, Temnozor.

Consisting of just four tracks, it does not hurt to give a little track-by-track description of ”Dzherelo”: starting with the title track, Viter introduces the mysterious atmosphere with the deliberate use of traditional instruments and Walknut esque melancholic black metal tremolo fire. ”Krov Tikae” is closer to the grandiose folk metal of Temnozor where flutes handle the goose bumps inducing, recurring melodies. Also to be noted is the emotional vocal output of Viterzgir - even if I don’t understand a word, I can hear the passion. ”Sny Hmar” works as an interlude of numerous different traditional instruments, far from some simple and cheap one-note synth fillers. This song ends to the surprisingly happily starting ”Vydrizh”, melodies somewhat reminiscent of Nokturnal Mortum’s later works, occasionally bursting into a beautiful sea of blastbeat filled black metal melancholy.

The amount of interesting ideas that ”Dzherelo” presents is mesmerizing, and this applies to all departments: emotional vocal delivery, the professional and natural production that gives space to all the instruments, the carefully crafted balance between metal and traditional music, and... I could go on and on. If you are into the bands that I’ve mentioned throughout this review, make sure you look into this EP. Even if not playing anything extremely original, Viter manages to make it sound nearly perfect. Only time will tell if this is worth of even a higher score.