Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Woodtemple - Voices Of Pagan Mountains - 2006 - No Colours Records

Track Listing1. Intro 2. Voices Of Pagan Mountains 3. Strains Of Eternal Sorrow 4. Winterland 5. Fire Of Our Swords 6. Outro

Woodtemple are one of the remaining few good Viking Black Metal bands in existence today. Hailing from Austria, sole member Aramath, has reached new levels of Pagan brutality with the release of "Voices of Pagan Mountains". Voices contains four epic battle hymns (along with an intro and outro), that are sure to have us raising our swords up high. On this third full-length release, Woodtemple incorporate acoustic passages, stellar drumming, and compelling emotion into their sound, creating a soundtrack that us Viking Black Metal fans have been waiting on for years. Voices is also a lot more aggressive than previous releases. Each song, averaging around 13 minutes in length, demonstrate persistent musicianship and a non-stop brutal attack of fierce metal. The standout song though, is "Fire of our Swords". Probably one of Woodtemple's fastest songs, it contains some of the best drumming that I have heard in a long time and the riffs flow frantically as if the dawn of the apocalypse is vastly approaching.

For those of you that have never heard of Woodtemple before, Voices of Pagan Mountains is a great place to start. Although, the Viking Black Metal scene seems to be scarce these days, very few bands can deliver the goods like Woodtemple. Even though each of Woodtemple's release is stellar to epic proportions, Voices of Pagan Mountains shows Aramath at the top of his game and we should be thankful that the Pagan fire still burns in his heart!


7 out of 10 on the Grim Gaijin metal fist scale!!!


--Grim Gaijin 10.31.06