Grai – ‘In the Arms of Mara’ (Vinyl 2014)
Rating: 8,5/10
Release: 1 October 2014 Vinyl
Label: Spirit of Ancestors Productions
No better blends then metal and vinyl, the metal-scene kept the vinyl issues alive during all these digital years. And these days we see vinyl issues with other bands as well. The small Czech label Spirit of Ancestors Produktions released a nice Grai album ‘In the Arms of Mara’. A real collector’s item.
And speaking of very nice blends, besides this metal and vinyl blend we get the delicious folk and metal mix.
The album consists of ten Grai tracks from their earlier albums. You’ll get the usual Grai sound, this means metal and lots of folk of a Slavic origin, with nice female vocals. A superb sound as you can hear in tracks like ‘The Song about Native Land’ and ‘Leshak’.
Sometimes nice and easy as in the sad track ‘Winter Tale’. Never very loud, it’s all rather clean metal, the ‘loudness’ is laid down by the powerful drums and solid guitar.
Do you like to add another vinyl issue to your collection? And you like folk-metal, then this is something you have to buy. Pure Russian folk-metal pressed into vinyl. The collection of songs on this album brings you the best songs from Grai’s early albums. So, vinyl-fans you should definitely buy this. For all the others, buy the digital alternative at their bandcamp.
Tracklist
- In the arms of Mara 6:30
- Winter tale 3:56
- Leshak 5:06
- Spring 3:29
- The wheaten song 3:27
- The song about Native Land 5:13
- I will go into the field 4:27
- Drunkard-Hellbenders 4:51
- Hugging the storm 3:38
- Birch 4:18