Vehemency Just like I thought when I reviewed Hagl’s previous album Nearer to Victory, this Russian group fixed all the glitches present on previous material and now comes up with Irminsul, a quite damn captivating black metal release that has just the right balance between the somewhat folkish melodies and the harshness of black / thrash metal, all this provided in a rough, sharp and natural production.

The constant fierceness and fast pace of the record makes Irminsul no easy listening at first, but after several spins the riffs’ ingenuity starts to shine, and I am not able to spot one weak track from this 9-track whole, starting from the brief intro (which is not some unnecessary synth playing one fade-in note, but real instrumentation that seamlessly flows into ”Drakkar”) and continuing through all the wistful, emotional melodies to the proud and aggressive sections. The players’ musicianship is a pleasure to listen to, most evident on the adventurous ”Instrumental” which gives a little room for the bass guitar also. Towards the end, ”Raven” and ”In the Whisper of Winds” give some space to distortionless guitars as well, and it all adds to the album’s epic sound.

It’s not that Hagl creates anything remarkably unique here on Irminsul, but they know how to create good riffs and melodies off quite traditional ideas, and I can’t complain. Luckily there’s no longer that cheap distortion effect on vocals, instead they now sound natural and pretty strongly in the vein of Lutomysl. For musical comparisons, think of all the many Eastern European black metal acts and also a little bit of Goatmoon, and you get a general picture of Hagl’s style of black metal.

There’s no need to go into fully detailed depictions when it comes to Irminsul’s individual songs; what only needs to be said is that Irminsul does its job admirably throughout and gets a warm recommendation from me if you’re generally into the style. Irminsul was already recorded three years ago (kind of the same thing with the previous album recorded in 2005 and not released until last year) which makes wonder if these Russians have already something new to unleash, and hopefully it won’t take that long again.

Vehemency ”Nearer to Victory”, being Hagl’s debut that was already recorded five years ago and not until now seeing the light of the day via Casus Belli Musica, provides some authentic and epic black metal - with occasional flirts with thrash riffage - in the form of a 25-minute whole that most certainly keeps the listener’s attention throughout.

Musically, there’s surprisingly many ideas packed into this short record, and Hagl, still being a 2-piece band at that time, executes them with frenetic energy. It is not until the fourth song ”Pure Crystal of Cognition” when the pace slows down to a Bilskirnir esque atmospheric wandering with hints of melancholy - otherwise the tempo is kept at a higher level and this is very fine considering the short running time that allows Hagl to be as fierce as it wants with no proper breaks. ”Hail, Father Lucifer!” provides some very sweet, epic riffs and an interesting breakdown, hence belonging to the standout moments on the album.

My main complaint goes to the sound department: the compositions could work better if they had a thicker production behind them, especially the drums that are a bit too airy sounding. Also, the singer’s screams, high-pitched in the rather usual black metal standard, have a distortion effect on them which makes it sound inconveniently unnatural. It is to be remembered, though, that we are in fact dealing with a 5-year-old record and samples from the upcoming album tell that the glitches that are still present on this album have been fixed.

Nonetheless, ”Nearer to Victory” is a worthy investment for those who like to hear some sonorous melodies in their black metal and are not looking for anything excessively new - though Hagl does seem to have their own sound going on, that’s for sure. This one makes my expectations towards the second album pretty high.