Walknut - Graveforests and Their Shadows (2007)

A QUICK DISCLAIMER/RANT: I'm not sure about this project in particular, but its main member Stringsskald is/has been in a number of NSBM bands, including Forest, Nitberg, and Темнозорь (aka Temnozor.) I certainly do not wish to promote a bigoted, harmful, hurtful, and overall toxic political agenda, especially at a time when my country is reeling from the effects of its own subtle and not so subtle racism. So, let's be clear: as I have done with Guns N' Roses, Elvis Costello, Led Zeppelin, Rick James, Roman Polanski, and so many others, I have chosen to view the work of this artist as separate from their reprehensible ideologies and/or actions.

Sometimes, often even, total assholes manage to create great art. Nowhere is this idea more prevalent than in the sketchy world of black metal. However, their talents don't make them or their views any less moronic or disgusting. No one race is superior to any other. Anyone who believes otherwise is wrong. Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Furthermore, as members of the most highly evolved species of animal on this planet, it is our duty to cast aside fear and mistrust, and consciously, unflinchingly embrace compassion, love, and respect for all life, especially our fellow men and women.

We cool? Alrighty then.

So here's some masterful, epic Russian black metal. Sprawling song structures, minimal vocals, and drawn out, simplistic chord progressions put Walknut somewhere in the vicinity of atmospheric BM, but driving drums, folk-ish melodies, energetic guitar work, and crisp but raw production place them closer to bands like Kroda and Helrunar.

Track listing:
1. Hrimfaxi
2. Motherland Ostenvegr
3. Come, Dreadful Ygg
4. The Midnightforest of the Runes
5. Grim Woods
6. Skinfaxi

It's entirely possible that they're just singing about how much they like hanging out in the woods