Band:	Kawir
Album:	Adrasteia
Style:	Pagan black metal
Release date:	December 10, 2019
A review by:	nikarg

01. Tydeus
02. Atalanti
03. Danaides
04. Limniades
05. Colchis
06. Medea

If you want a break from black metal dealing with Satanism, nihilism/misanthropism, the void in all its forms, Odin and Valhalla, frostbitten mountains and snow-covered forests, and all the other cliché themes associated with the genre, try out Kawir. And if murder-filled, revenge-fuelled and tragedy-stricken Greek mythology is not an apt theme for this type of music, I don't know what is.

Αδράστεια (or Adrasteia) is the title of the latest offering by Hellenic folksy black metal lyricists Kawir, and it is a concept album like the one that came before it. While Exilasmos was about appeasing the gods' wrath after two dynasties nearly exterminated each other, Adrasteia (the goddess associated with female revenge) focuses on heroic but also bloodthirsty women and the cruelty surrounding them (or often caused by them). To give you an example, "Limniades", the first song revealed before the album's release, is about the women of Limnos island who neglected the worship of Aphrodite. As punishment, the goddess made these women smell so bad that their husbands abandoned them and took concubines from Thrace. Limniades then took their revenge by killing every man on the island, including the king. I can tell you from experience that you don't want to piss a Greek woman off.

Enough with the ancient myths though. As far as the music is concerned, the album is an amalgam of the two that preceded it. Kawir's offering to the gods features the folk/pagan garlands that overflowed Πάτερ Ήλιε Μήτερ Σελάνα (Father Sun Mother Moon), as well as the bloody black metal and the classic heavy metal libations that Exilasmos was poured with. Ceremonial hymns, heroic marching, blastbeating aggression and melodic splendour are all in play in this album. The two tracks that excel in blending all of the above are "Atalanti" and especially the astounding closer "Medea", which may even be the best specimen in Kawir's discography. For a group that has been around for nearly three decades, this is no small feat.

Adrasteia flows effortlessly because the band managed to keep things short and concise, with the album clocking in at just under 41 minutes. The guests on it actually do have a role and are not just there for the credits. Criminally underrated Macabre Omen's mainman Alexandros is the one behind the clean invocations, Melechesh's Ashmedi has offered a guitar solo on "Danaides", and Wardruna's Lindy-Fay Hella's ethereal voice on "Colchis" could melt the ice on the peaks of mount Olympus.

Adrasteia is Kawir's familiarly violent sonic portrait once again drenched in deep lyricism that is achieved thanks to the traditional folk instrumentation and the compelling narrative. Quorthon would be proud and those women in Limnos would approve.

"Ο Καλυδώνιος υιός του Οινέα, πλημμυρισμένος απ' οργή
Ορμάει στη μάχη
Ο σκληρόκαρδος Τυδέας, ο τιμωρός του αδίκου"

(Oeneus's Calydonian son, filled with wrath
Throws himself into battle
Tydeus the hard-hearted, the punisher of injustice)