Review by Anna on March 8, 2011.

"D'Olde Roop" is Mondvolland's first full-length release. They are a Dutch band self-described as "Folkloristic Black Metal". That it is.

This album has an organic sound with competent musicians and very active basslines. The vocals are nice and gritty with good power. There is occasionally some singing, and bits of everything that you would find in Folk Metal such as flutes, fiddles, primal screams, sounds of fire, and spoken word- all suspended in a base of Black and Heavy Metal. Though their sound fits perfectly in the confines of the "Folk (Black) Metal" genre, one can hear the uniqueness of their musicianship, notably in the guitar and bass-playing, and the interesting interplay between the strings on certain tracks. The music is often "festive" without that "drunken" feeling many Folk-Metal bands tend to take on (the vocal lines on 'Hoefslagen In De Verte', especially the verse, is an example of this mature, musical "sobriety"). The clean vocals here are a strong point that would definitely be worthwhile to develop.

For me this is all too much topping for my pizza as I find the 'concentrated' lack of profusion meaningful, however if "more is more" for you, and you're into Folk Metal and bands like Korpiklaani, Metsatöll, and even Vintersorg, you would be wise to check this band out. "D'Olde Roop" is not skimpy on the "folk".

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8.6
Atmosphere: 8.8
Production: 8.7
Originality: 8.3
Overall: 8.6

Rating: 8.6 out of 10

Review by JD on October 25, 2010.

Blackened Folk Metal has always both puzzled me and yet made me excited. How can something so unusual sounding be this heavy and unforgiving as well? That is a question that resonates in my head yet it does not bother me. It is all different, yet it makes the style that much more powerful a thing that makes me love it despite the unusualness of this newer of metallic genres.

Mondvolland reminds me of the band Myrkvar from the Netherlands or even Finnish Verjnuarmu. Even though both are closer to being Viking styled metal than this band the similarities are striking. Strong folkish roots with traditional instruments match up with powerful metallic guitars that accent one another, and create that perfect mix that so many bands never seem to end up getting.

The language is not known to me, but that does not detract from me enjoying them. They are a band that has copious amounts of talent not to mention that they make some very interesting music that sticks in my mind long after I click the off button. It is that sort of thing that makes me forget that they are not speaking a language I know and just lets me have the pure metallic pleasure ride anyways.

The language barrier might stop some from listening to them but I urge anyone who loves strange yet monstrously heavy music to give it a try. I have a hunch that if the listener does, they will get the same appreciation for it as I did. Music is a bridging point for everyone you don’t have to understand to understand in a different way.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 8.5
Production: 7.5 (a touch muddy)
Originality: 9
Overall: 9

Rating: 8.6 out of 10

Review by Alex on September 24, 2018.

The two primary outlining factors that comprise a good or even decent speed metal album (for me) are…... well…….. speed and guitar solos. Unfortunately for Outline one key element is missing, that being the guitar solos. Though not the only problem Fire Whiplash is confronted by, the absence of this key entity comes at a huge disadvantage for Outline. Not only does it make Fire Whiplash seem like an insufficient and lazy performance, it questions the band’s passion for the genre if they are genuinely zealous about composing speed metal. For just 22 minutes of material Fire Whiplash cannot be seen as a full length offering. Personally I consider a full length speed metal album to be at least 30 minutes with 35 minutes of playing time being the maximum. 22 minutes of no guitar solos and a few fast songs is not ideally convincing especially for a newly formed band that wishes to make their imprint onto the genre’s slate. I felt as though I was listening to a gore-grind version of speed metal, the kind of gore-grind album that has 20 songs, each baring 1:45 seconds of insipidness. Also one must take into consideration that Outline had released a demo in 2017 titled Fire Whiplash which features 5 of the 8 songs featured on this so called ‘debut full length’. This isn’t a good look for Outline given that only 3 new songs were added to their 2018 Hell’s HeadBangers debut album, those being; “Black Eyed Devil”, “The Assassin” and “Hell Squad” which don’t offer much at all and are not nearly as memorable as “Away From You” and “Lady Teaser”, in which are slow to an extent and can be found on the 2017 Fire Whiplash demo.

The exclusion of guitar solos is unacceptable; not sure if this musical decision materialized subconsciously or whether it was intentional; nevertheless, this absence is unforgivable; It’s like a pizza devoid of cheese or a rainbow without blue, red and green, it just doesn’t work. Doing this only makes the band seem diffident or tentative in that particular field and even places a blemish on the band as a collaborative unit. For it is usually the guitar solos that determine whether or not the music has any coherence particularly within the genre of speed metal.

A promotional video for the track “Lady Teaser” was released in which highlighted the stereotypes as I expected; the alcoholism and hot metal chicks were in full display in all the petite leather lust. I can see why this was necessary, thus given the music on Fire Whiplash is clearly not convincing enough to be labelled as a genuine and competent speed metal album. 

There is one positive take away from Fire Whiplash, that being the vocals of the front woman. As bad as many people think they are, I admire the shit out of them. Her vocals sound very organic and raspy, her mid-range highs have a sort of sexual wailing that I like as though she is about to achieve an orgasm. Hearing her style of screaming got me really hard really fast. They even sound to be veering towards the good cheesy side of Karaoke, especially on the track “Away From You”. As much as I like her vocal delivery there is no way they compensate for the lack-luster overall performance. I cannot score Fire Whiplash highly especially when there are actual speed metal bands such as Evil Invaders, Metalian and Black Magic (Norway) who have exhibited nothing short of brilliance in their musical compositions. As of now Outline is nothing more than a watered down version of speed metal in my opinion, perhaps they can be labelled as a speed core band until they decide to get serious.

Rating: 1.8 out of 10