Band:	Holy Blood
Album:	Waves Are Dancing
Style:	Black metal, Folk metal
Release date:	2004
A review by:	Undercraft

01. Intro
02. To Heaven
03. The Spring
04. Jerusalem
05. I Flow Towards The Fate
06. Baptising Of The Rus'
07. In The Last Battle
08. The Fair
09. Waves Are Dancing
10. Outro

Christian and Viking?

The formula of Viking Metal is quite simple, mix some Death-Black Metal with Folk music and Viking-era themes, it's been done before and it will be done further on.
And so here I have a so-called Viking Metal album, which the sole difference that these guys support Christianity, isn't that contradictory? How can you be Viking and support Christianity? Pagan Gods are anything but Christian, but I'll leave that issue to the experts in the fields, I just gave my 2 cents there.

Anyway, these guys come from Ukraine, and they have all the things you could expect from a Viking Metal outfit, grand chants, female vocals, folk instruments (such as a flute) and harsh vocals (this time in the form of a shriek-scream).

The flute sets the "Viking" mood in almost every song, tracks are usually fast paced and reminded me of Melodic Death Metal mostly, all songs are sung in their native language, which I assume is Ukrainian, but as I'm a Spanish native speaker, it really looks like Russian to me.

Anyway, as I was saying, the best way to dissect the band is taking Melodic Death Metal, some shriek-ish vocals, group chants and a flute, mix it and serve cold.
Songs are fine, but they tend to repeat themselves, making the album somewhat repetitive, is not like there's a marked difference between each song, and that is the problem with the album.

Nevertheless, this is pretty enjoyable for anyone who really appreciates Viking/Folk Metal, so stay tuned and watch out for this band, their next release could be the Ukrainian Metal revelation.