Band:	Patria
Album:	Hymns Of Victory And Death
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	July 31, 2009
A review by:	!J.O.O.E.!

01. Darkness Arise
02. Hymns of Victory And Death
03. Old Blood Legacy
04. Unholy Cold Crypts
05. Here Comes the Winter
06. Third Circle
07. Immortal Hate
08. Patria

I would like to think that people wouldn't begrudge me if I were to say I only listened to this album once and reviewed from there. That isn't the case but I really don't think anyone could blame me if it were so. This is a Darkclone, a middling, albeit enthusiastic Darkclone, from the cold, grim lands of Brazil... oh wait, that's not right. Scratch that last bit. Repeated listens of this kind of music seldom reveal new pastures of depth and intrigue. Patria basically do what they say on the tin.

Fair play to them though, Mantus and his buddies make absolutely no qualms about their style, nor do they try to hide it. They revel in the exploits of "Necro Raw Metal" with an almost charming vigor, often to the point where one could think they're doing something new. But of course they aren't. It's pretty standard stuff: chilly, frost-bitten, punky riffs à la old-school create a well-worn visual picture of men in corpse-paint and unnaturally tight leather trousers in a forest/glacier/castle ruin/insert image doing dark things; black things; things in shadows; bad things; things Garth? things, which I suppose will always have a place amongst the new and the stubborn. Oddly enough though there is a standout track that features a shade or two of Huldrafolk-era Wyrd; the rawness aside the overt background harmonies marks "Old Blood Legacy" as a short lived but pleasant distraction from the rest of the buzzing guitar and raspy vocals of other tracks.

So all things considered there's nothing inherently bad about this, just middle-finger to the face unoriginality. Anyone with a penchant for the early 90's black metal sound will surely lap this up - it's honest, to the point and relatively well played. Just don't expect innovation.

And anyway, any band that actually uses the term "outdated" as a description of their sound is always worth an extra half-point in my book.