All My Sins - "Pra sila - Vukov totem" (Saturnal Records, 2018)

Band: All My Sins
Title: Pra sila - Vukov totem
Genre: Melodic Black Metal
Time: 55.47 min
Release Date: 23rd September 2018
Rating: 92/100













All My Sins are back! Exactly, they are back in September 2018 when they released their longheld debut album "Pra sila - Vukov totem" through the Finnish label Saturnal Records. I've waited with extreme interest the release of this album because, after works of calibre of the "Lunar/Solar" EP and, especially, the "Zov iz magle" single, I expected something grandiose. In fact, All My Sins kept entirely every expectation about the album by releasing a masterpiece like few others! I must say already that it deserved to be into my 2018 TOP TEN releases, so it's a real pity that I managed to listen to it only in these days but, as the proverb says, it's better late than never! So, let's see why "Pra sila - Vukov totem" is so incredibly impressive!


Firstly, there is need to say that "Pra sila - Vukov totem" is a challenging album since it lasts almost an hour, so expect long songs lasting even the beauty of 10 minutes. Secondly, All My Sins kept intact every feature of their style, that see essentially a melodic black metal able to be majestic and poetic but also, at the same time, fast and violent, with the addition of themes focused on the South Slavonic mysticism. And thirdly, they managed to wide even more their music in terms of dynamic and different emotions by adding new features, as you'll see soon, so the variety is really remarkable here.

For me, the first half of the album shows the band at their maximum peak of inspiration. Its first song is the same "Vukov totem", as almost 10-minute opus characterized by a great dynamicity, so it ranges from aggressive black/thrash metal parts to more melodic ones with participative basslines and some evocative guitar solos. Here All My Sins have already introduced some of the new aforementioned features in their style, that are not only the thrash metal influences (that will be expressed even better in another song into the album) but also the guitar solos, that are present also in other numbers. "Vukov totem" is followed by "Zov iz magle", structurally more simple than the previous song but very epic and emotional thanks both to the suggestive clean vocals from time to time and to some minimalist keyboards. Then, there is "Vetrovo kolo", another very brilliant track that's amazing because it is melodic but extremely attacking due to stormy blast-beats featuring no slowdowns in any case during ALL of its 6 minutes of lenght! After that, it's the turn of "U mlazevima krvi", in which All My Sins shows surely their most aggressive side through a really violent and wicked black/thrash metal where there is a ripping guitar solo in the mid-tempo section, and including even intense gang choruses at the end of the track.

Instead, the second half of the album is a little bit impressive than the first one. This because, for example, it contains a song I don't like so much as "Opsena", that's, in practice, is divided between two parts connected through a sort of traditional shamanic chanting, but the problem is that the second part, based completely on mid-tempos, is too static and not so engaging. Fortunately, the second half of the album provides gems such as "Mesecu u oko", an instrumental acoustic full of poetry ending in an unpredictable, very violent way; and the ultra-challenging "Konačna ravnodnevica", a long 18-minute suite split into two parts respectively titled "Čin prvi" and "Čin drugi". Of them, the best one is "Čin drugi" because it's slow, dramatic and atmospheric also thanks to a lead guitar playing constantly evocative arpeggios in clean.

No other words to add! "Pra sila - Vukov totem", which includes as session member the drummer Nemir and as guests Khargash (Khargash, Terrörhammer etc...) and Jaguar (both present in the thrashing manic attack "U mlazevima krvi") is surely one of the best black metal albums released in these last years! And maybe the nicer thing is how All My Sins made more versatile their style by adding many new features with the final result that their album is really various and always surprising for the listeners. And you have to count also that they have now a fascinating look by which they seem to be shamans, a wise change considering that this new album is a kind of concept-album about the figure of the wolf as mythological being. Really, other words are useless, so take a chance to "Pra sila - Vukov totem" since I'm sure it will not disappoint you! 100% guaranteed!

Tracklist:

1 - Vukov totem
2 - Zov iz magle
3 - Vetrovo kolo
4 - U mlazevima krvi
5 - Opsena
6 - Mesecu u oko
7 - Konačna ravnodnevica (Čin prvi)
8 - Konačna ravnodnevica (Čin drugi)

Line-up:

Nav Cosmos - vocals/recitals/bass
V - guitars/bass/vocals (backing & clean)/recitals/keyboards/vrg
Nemir (session) - drums

Guests:

Khargash - bass/backing vocals ("U mlazevima krvi")
Jaguar - backing vocals ("U mlazevima krvi")

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/allmysins
BandCamp: https://vukovtotem.bandcamp.com/
Saturnal Records: http://www.saturnalrecords.com/