Rating: 8/10
Release: 2012
Label: Independent

Another new Dutch folk-metalband Viatora is releasing an first EP. This one has a nice Dutch title, Mede, Kruid & Mensenvlees (Mead, Herbs & Human flesh).
After an Intro we get the track Scars, which sounds very nice with a good female and male singing and nice violin-parts. It has a nice epic touch which differs from the second part of the album.
Three sided coin, has this nice folky tunes a bit in the eluveitie style. But the rest of the song is not eluveitie-like at all. There are very nice metalscreams in this song, which have a nice contrast with the clean female vocals.
Wintertocht is a song with Dutch and English lyrics, and maybe it’s strange, but after listening to this EP several times the sound in this track is the sound which is Viatora to me. Strange because the previous songs sound better, everything is more in balance in those two tracks. I can’t understand the lyrics, and they are sometimes to fragile, without a body. A shame because the rest of it has a nice sound.
The same goes for Reel of Fire has this same flaw. A nice track, but it can be enhanced at some points.
Trollig is again a nice Viatora song. The song has nice troll-elements and I can imagine this is a song which an audience wants to hear at a gig.

Mede, Kruid & Mensenvlees is a nice EP, it has two faces, if it was vinyl Scars and Three sided coin could be on the dark side of probably the human flesh side and the last three songs on the bright side of the record or the mead side. This leaves me with the herbs and a bit mixed feelings. Both styles are nice and I’m not sure if they fit together perfectly. Probably you should listen to this yourself and make up your mind. In the dark sides the clean female vocals and the male metal-vocals form a beautiful combination. There are also folk-elements in this track but not as much as in the other tracks.
Wintertocht, Reel of Fire and Trollig have a much merrier sound, with lots of folk-elements, but in this tracks the vocals are somewhat less well done.
Summing up, Viatora has made an nice EP with this one. A very nice sound and 5 beautiful songs. I’m convinced when they live long enough, and I really hope they do go on for years and years, they will re-record some of the tracks with some little enhancements.
I’m already waiting for the next album and in the meantime I have to keep an eye on them, because I don’t want to miss this when they’re in the neighborhood sometimes.

Tracklist

1. Intro
2. Scars
3. Wintertought
4. Three Sided Coin
5. Reel of Fire
6. Trollig