Butterfly Temple – ‘Breath’ (2012)
By: Thijs
Rating: 6,5/10
Release: 27 October 2012
Label: Mazzar Records
I have always been a fan off Butterfly Temple. East-European folk-metal is for a long time not an obscure subgenre any more. And bands like this made this possible. Butterfly Temple is in this scene for quite a long time, and despite their previous releases ‘Breath’ lacks a bit of the ‘wow-factor’.
The album starts with a calm piano-intro, joined by beautiful cello not long after the start. This could be positive but it kept me waiting for the moment the metal would blew me away. Instead of this a mid-tempo song follows with a somewhat thin sound. A pity, because the first minute of a record are definitely of great importance for an final opinion. The fact remains I could listen with pleasure to this song, because the compositions are very good as usual with Butterfly temple. Spheres change in a perfect way and the musicians are very skilled.
After I accepted I shouldn’t listen to Breath as the latest album of Butterfly Temple, but as something completely new, it gave me more pleasure. Catchy songs follow the one after the other, the vocals are varied and complete each other . A progressive phrase every now and then are all but standard procedure.
The black metal-elements aren’t as prominent as they were and this gives more space to the pagan-element. I can hear the specialist think: ‘Butterfly Temple was already very pagan?’ Correct, my well informed Viking-friend, but Breath beats them all. The airy sound diminishes the power at some moments, but the keys have a more prominent piece in the mix, something which can only be done on purpose.
For a band which exists since 1996 in this scene, I had higher expectations. When I look through the discography I get the opinion ‘Quantity goes above Quality’. A pity because on this album as well as the previous one their potency can clearly be heard. I hope Butterfly Temple takes it’s time for the follow-up. A masterpiece is on it’s way, when I listen to the compositions of Breath, this could be a nice teaser for such a masterpiece. As a single piece of work it’s seems to miss it’s goal.
Tracklist
- Pered zakatom 03:13
- Posledneye dykhaniye 04:05
- Oblakom tuman 05:32
- Shag za porog 04:30
- Stepnaya kobylitsa 04:49
- Svetlaya 05:02
- Dvenadtsat’ sozvezdiy 05:33
- Unesi menya, techen’ye 04:08
- Ogon’ soznaniya 03:46
- Mor 03:52
- Smert’ dana odna na vsekh 05:57