Review by Felix on September 26, 2022.

After gallantly overlooking Mavorim's first two records, I've been fighting my way from back to front since "Non Omnis Moriar". The investment for both "Axis Mundi" and "Silent Leges Inter Arma" under discussion here has been worthwhile. Already on his debut, one man army Baptist scores with amazing compositional skills. He shows no interest in extreme degrees of hardness, but his melodies are never too mild, too. In addition, he does not shy away from a well integrated soft part every now and then. This approach gives the album a certain depth and a proper portion of variety – and, by the way, the different sections blend seamlessly with each other. Maybe it is no coincidence that the most epic number, “Heimatboden”, has been placed in the centre of the tracklist. Especially its mid-tempo parts with the commanding, god-like voice give the song a cruel aura, no matter its comparatively mild parts. The atmospheric keyboard outro adds the final touch.

Baptist, the man behind the project, uses his mother tongue and spits out archaic fantasies of violence. Sometimes I think we would deserve more intelligent lyrics, but okay, that’s black metal, if I am not mistaken. Either way, he varies his voice enough to avoid monotony and this makes the album even more interesting. But its main pillars are the solid degree of (double-bass driven) aggression (“Feind geworden”) and some magic melodies. Their magic lies in the fact that they sound gentle, yet evoke an ominous mood (“Das Fleisch der Engel”). This is a cool effect and lends Mavorim some individuality – today we know that the project has cultivated this approach on its following albums in an excellent manner. The production supports this procedure, because it largely does without edges and corners. Maybe this mix is not aligned with the dogma of true black metal, but here it works.

As mentioned above, “Silent Leges Inter Arma” was / is the first full-length of Mavorim and therefore it comes as no surprise that there is room for improvement as well. “Waffenträger”, for example, marks a solid track without remarkable deficiencies, but it also does not shine with any outstanding details. “Kolosse aus Stahl” is also okay, no more, no less. But Baptist, this is obvious, has put his whole skills and emotions into the material and his maturity shimmers through every tone, regardless whether I listen to a solid or an excellent song. At the end, the output can boast with a very homogeneous design and a good flow. Therefore it is only logical that no throwaway track appears here. Moreover, there is no loss in quality as the album progresses. The last regular track, the comparatively rapid “Der Tod wollt ich sein”, convinces with excellent guitar lines and a healthy dose of dynamic. So from my point of view, there can be no doubt that Mavorim belong to the most competent bands in the German scene. Three full-lengths and not a single crap song: this is a proud interim result. Guess it’s time to discover the legion of splits and EPs...

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Felix on January 29, 2020.

I confess: my first vinyl was not AC/DC, Kiss or even Black Sabbath. As a child, I had some records with fairy tales or children’s stories about trolls, goblins and all that stuff. Almost 45 years later, I feel like I have gone back in time. Malokarpatan’s third album is also filled to the brim with gnomish stuff. Thank God, they did not forget to integrate some metallic parts as well. Anyway, it is not easy to find access to their sound. Firstly, five songs with a playtime of more than 48 minutes are always a difficult configuration and secondly, the crude mix of folklore, atmospheric sequences and black metal sections is challenging in itself. Finally, we are speaking about a concept album and we know that this does not make things easier. Needless to say, the story is about witches, mysterious supernatural apparitions and further stuff for hobby-esoterics.

Imagine an album which has been recorded exactly in the middle between the outskirts of the North Carpathian forests and a dwarfish parallel universe and maybe than you have an exact picture of the sound of Krupinské Ohne (“The Fires of Krupina”). Even during the metallic parts, there is always a kind of magic in the air and some ghostly shadows surround the listener. Speaking of the typical metal sequences, they are formed by vintage riffing (every now and then, the seventies shimmer through), a few straight and speedy parts and, last but not least, the narrative, dark voice of the lead singer. A lot of reverb on his vocals emphasizes the unreal overall picture. Sometimes I am quite unsure whether or not this is a coherent concept, but even after two previous, more or less very well comparable full lengths, the offering of the Slovakian defenders of quirky metal is still charming. Indeed, I wish they would focus more on their harshest side (which is, by the way, not that harsh…), but I also do not feel the urgent need to skip the other sections. Nevertheless, some unusual parts with equally unusual instruments do not work. The third song, for example, would have been better without the primitive keyboard intermezzo in its center. It sounds like a leftover of early Nocturnus and conveys an outer space feeling. Guess this part was contributed by the main dwarf from the other universe.

Does a band have a soul? If this is the case, Malokarpatan’s one belongs to the pretty melancholic specimen. And it has an almost dreamy facet as well. Maybe this is the reason why the guitar-dominated sections do not really create an evil atmosphere. The pretty blurred guitar tone and the voice rule the sound without reaching the medium degree of common evilness. Okay, the mother tongue of the lead vocalist sounds slightly menacing in my ears (and some ohoho-screams in the closer are truly terrible), but this alone does not form an album which can be described as true black metal. So here we have a traditional work with black ingredients and extraordinary additions. Malokarpatan do not lack ambitions, but we know that it is a very thin line between genius and insanity and my silent hope is that they go one step back, returning to songs which come faster to the point. Krupinské Ohne is still a good album with a robust substance, but the band is in danger to fall victim to their own overproduction of ideas. Or maybe I just cannot forget my infantile socialization. My first vinyls told much less complex stories than Malokarpatan.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10