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Varg: Blutaar Pagan Metal Napalm Records, Noise Art Records March 9th, 2010
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Review
Varg return roughly three years after their debut full-length with their second studio album, Blutaar, and it's a welcome return. While keeping with the generic Pagan Metal staples, the band mixes that with more Folkish sounding slower elements, adding a hint of originallity and confusion to the mix. As a whole the album is rather enjoyable, but does it possess enough talent that it'll have a long lasting appeal for the fans? Much of Blutaar seems to be divided amongst the straight forward Pagan Metal tenacity in the heavier, faster paced tracks like "Zeichen der Zeit", while the slower moments throughout the release hold a much more Folk inspiration to them through usage of guitar chords that sound a little more upbeat. This doesn't hold back the album at all, and sometimes manages to enhance the release when done right. "Viel Feind Viel Ehr" is the first example of this you'll come across, when the music slows down and takes the Pagan sound that appears during the heavier moments into a bouncier, more Folk sounding acoustic version that does lighten the mood a bit. This is actually where it's done wrong, as the mood of the song shifts every time the band does this and kind of takes away from the intense, somewhat dispairaging sound. While the start of the album is pretty good and really where most of the energy of this release lies, it isn't until the later tracks that Blutaar really starts to pick up and avert from the staples and signatures of Pagan Metal. Varg seems to experiment a bit more musically around the title track, "Blutaar", which is simply a phenomenally catchy song that eloquently blends the Pagan and Folk elements together. Even the more blatently acoustic Folk instrumental is entertaining, though not needed and actually interrupts the progression of the album. While "Nebelleben" does work due to "Seele" closing out with an acoustic outro, this instrumental would have worked better in front of the track "Seele" which starts off with a beautiful acoustic introduction being played against rain drops, flowing nicely into the actual song that works perfectly with that mood so that it wouldn't seem as if the band were trying to just stretch the beauty of "Seele" to the point where the listener will stop caring prior to the more intense "Zeichen der Zeit" kicking in. Sadly, this is where the album starts to revert to how it was in the beginning. That isn't to say the rest of Blutaar is not good, it's just rather generic and may cause you to lose a little interest, but not much. The album closes on the same note that it started with one exception: "Altar Feind". This track actually doesn't seem to have the same enthusiasm as anything else on the release, coming off a bit bland. "Blutdienst II" is another track worth pointing out that kind of hinders the album. While not as bad as "Altar Feind", you may wind up just saying enough already and wishing it would end as this song is also of a slower pace and feels rather generic and cliche as well, but at least seems to have more of a stronger, diverse and energetic vocal performance that was lacking on "Alter Feind". Either way, Blutaar is still a powerful album that does it's job well for what it is. While it's obvious that some tracks are going to be played more then others, you'll still go back to this album plenty of times after the initial first spin through, and justifies your time to check the release out. If Varg could attempt to focus on writing more tracks that carry the Pagan feel, while keeping an aura of beauty such as on "Seele", or even a well composed intensity that doesn't have too many generic staples of their style, such as with "Zeichen der Zeit", then they could have one of the most amazing albums within the style. Until the band can realize the full potential they have, we'll continue to see mixed albums such as this.
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