Rating: 8.5/10
Release: 31 January 2013
Label: Casus Belli Musica

It’s time to say goodbye, we’re facing a harsh Russian winter. The sun leaves the sky the birds are gone. The Winter with all it’s despair, and cold darkness falls over the land. The blizzards are trying to blow our faith away.
Prepare for this when you listen to ‘Birdless Heavens’ by Oprich. Fierce drums, dark deep and somewhat sad male vocals, distorted guitar and clean guitar paint a picture of a harsh and desolate winter-landscape. Nice folk-instruments mainly flute, bring us a little hope in this darkness.
In Valedictory Hymn we get to say goodbye to the green leaves, the sparkling waters, the hope…
In The First Wintry Touches you can feel the first encounters with this dark time of the year. You feel cold when the beautiful guitar creates shivers down your spine even the flute gets melancholic in this track. In the end we give up and let the winter cover us.
You can hear the blizzard in This Light And Joyous Death when the winters reigns over the lands like beautiful but harsh mistress.
Nice folkloric sounds at the start of Beldam-Snowstorm give us hope and strength to face this storm of icy snow which tries to bury us deep.
The Sit’-River tells paints a picture of a battlefield in the snow, where dead bodies lie all around and blood is colouring the snow. How great can despair be? The wounds of these heroic warriors are only covered by the wings of ravens.
You can image the stillness of cold winter with all his jewellery of frozen water everywhere in The Prophetic. But there they are.. the first rays of the sun, giving it all a glittering light.
And in Soon, Very Soon! Hope is back, there’s time to feast, life is coming back.

Pagan metal at it’s best, Oprich paints the harsh wintertime of Russia for us. You can completely get lost in this picture of winter. You can almost feel the cold coming at the end of the warm season, you can shiver with the torturing icy winds, but when you close your eyes, you can also see the first sun-rays through the trees. And get joyful when the wheel of time has made another turn.
Beautiful painted by this great pagan band from Russia.

Tracklist

1. Valedictory Hymn
2. The First Wintry Touches
3. This Light And Joyous Death
4. Beldam-Snowstorm
5. The Sit’-River
6. The Prophetic
7. Soon, Very Soon!