Review by JD on April 13, 2009.

Romanian Warganism has cone to me, and I have no idea who or what they are. I slip the disk in and wait... anticipation of the unknown growing in my head as I press the play button and wait for the first track to tumble out at me. What do I find? What do I hear? I will tell you all...

I was expecting something along the likes of unrelenting and very crushing Death Metal and some shadings of Black as well, because that is what they have deemed themselves to be on their MySpace page. I got to say that Warganism is truly more than that tag, because they have not coined themselves in the right way.

This brutal and talented five piece do have the harshest and very venomously delivered Death Metal vocals around, yet they are actually so deeply melodic and has this sort of ethereal quality that it truly is different. It is with the music where they separate themselves from the normal Death Metal stereotypes, and construct a scaffolding that is a new shape and majesty for metalheads to enjoy.

They have boundless song structures that are throughout the disk. Musically, they somehow come across to me a little like Novembers Doom mixing with some very early Helloween and then adding in some classic NWBHM tilts as well. They have that sort of unique vibe of a band that is transcending all attempts of pigeonholing them in one style or another... then making them be seen as a band that is truly a musical force all of their own

All of the songs are strongly musical in nature while holding nothing that would be deemed as 'wimpy', top that off with extremely well crafted lyrics to go along with it. Warganism is a band that cannot be just one thing or the other. No wonder that people call them the best Romanian band... Hell, I think they might be one of the best out there on the world metal stage.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 7
Originality: 8.5
Overall: 8

Rating: 7.9 out of 10

Review by Adam M on June 21, 2016.

Sylvaine performs beautiful post-metal that is similar to Alcest in style. This music has many ebbs and flows of emotion much like Alcest’s material. The perfect comparison would be a combination of Alcest with what was heard on Myrkur’s first album.

The music has a beauty to it that is pure and all encompassing. It is stripped down and straight to the heart, but this is also what allows it to have such tremendous impact. The music here is ethereal and very pretty sounding. The entire approach is a thing of beauty. It does transcend into black metal a bit more and gain a bit of harshness at times, but is often in the pretty mode. This sense of mood is nicely demonstrated on the first track Delusions alone. The vocals alternate between the clean and harsh styles at the appropriate moment and effortlessly glide over the music. Still, despite the contrast, the majority of the music is dominated by the soft mood overall. It has the ability to glide right over the surroundings in the most serene of manners. Wistful is actually highly similar to the music of Myrkur, though this has more of the shoegaze element present. This element is interesting, but not necessarily used in the entirely appropriate manner at all times. There are lulls in the music and they could be related to the use of black metal portions and shoegaze elements as well.

Still, the ethereal atmosphere is captivating more often than not with the music here. It’s the ingredient that elevates this from a pretty good recording to a great one. One might wish there was slightly more consistency to be found, but there is very little to fault with this recording. It has the right mood for practically any moment.

Rating: 8 out of 10