NOMANS LAND - Last Crusade review

NOMANS LAND - Last Crusade

Massacre Records

http://nomansland.ru/

I think that everyone that is into heavy metal knows that the Vikings were and still are a big inspiration for our sound. These northern warriors who were something like pirates and yet explorers had some beliefs that fit to the heavy metal attitude and these are no others than living free and taking your chances (amongst others). NOMANS LAND is a Russian band who is inspired by the Vikings and they have one more reason than the above mentioned ones. This reason is that the Vikings played an influential role in the Russian history.

THE COVER: The cover is really beautiful and somehow has a comic book feeling. It shows a Norseman upon his horse holding his axe and moving in a misty field surrounded by a forest. I think it works as an appetizer for the kind of music that you will listen to here.

MUSICAL STYLE: I presented in the past previous works of NOMANS LAND who might not be as known as other bands of the Viking metal genre, but they sure have quality and are worth to be noticed by the fans of the genre. This is their fifth studio album and finds them in their new label, Massacre Records. The band has not changed musically since their sound combines folk melodies, a lot of heavy metal elements and of course mainly some harsh and a few clear vocals.

COMPOSITIONS: Here you will find 8 new compositions which have all the elements of melodic Viking metal. I mean that the band doesn’t have a lot of death or black metal influences as most of the bands of this sound, but they move more into the fields of heavy/power metal mixed with folk tunes and melodies. I think that they are closer to such bands like TYR, FALCONER and MITHOTYN.

CONCLUSION: NOMANS LAND is a typical Viking metal band and that is not necessarily bad. On the contrary the band has nice melodies and heavy riffs and in the 40 minutes and more that is the duration of this album they have managed to capture my imagination and travel me back to medieval times. I think that the fans of the Viking metal sound will love them.

Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis