Label: Art of the Night Productions
Release date: April 25th, 2025
One more quiet young Polish ensemble came back after seven long years of silence with an EP entitled “Fury Untamed”. Well, to be honest, probably only in my world is Valkenrag not too experienced a band, because it was founded in 2006, in Tomaszow Mazowiecki and Lodz. But you have, I guess, no choice but only to forgive an old man like me for his quirks. For me, all bands formed after 2005 are and will always remain young – and I deeply doubt it’ll ever change. Another thing, and it may partly explain to me, is that during these nineteen years of existence guys released only a demo, EP and two albums, the last one in 2018. The fact is that there were some changes in line-up, but at the same time, in my opinion, there weren’t enough of them to paralyze the creative process. But maybe I don’t know anything about the thing and I’m talking nonsense. That’s why let’s leave the topic alone and concentrate on what’s actually the only thing we’re interested in here.
This one, released by Art of Night Productions April 25th in form of both CD and digital album EP, I’ll stick to terminology currently used, not traditional, because it seems for quixotism, contains five not too short, but at the same time not too long (the shortest is about three minutes and eight seconds and the longest – four minutes and two seconds) songs. They take less (eighteen seconds to be precise) than nineteen minutes and this is a real pleasure to listen to, I must say. Of course, it’s a pleasure only for people who like a huge element of melody created by guitars in our beloved music. That’s why those of you who appreciate blasts, vomiting growling or short, broken riffs and think that’s the only right way metal should look like, should as soon as possible leave reading my scribble. I mean, while listening to “Fury…” I have no doubts even a second, I listen to death metal and mentally based in orthodox understanding of this type of music ensemble (most of Polish metalheads always were this way and as I notice, nothing changed at this point). I tell you even more, I clearly hear guys are fascinated during their work on music by Swedish school of death metal. But as we know very well there’re, let’s call it, two main Swedish styles of playing mentioned before the subgenre of metal. And Valkenrag, which can be deduced from name and even appearance of the logo, is representative of this one who was created in second the most populous city of Sweden and emphasizes melody.
Although my main association, most likely resulting from the subject matter of the lyrics, which in my opinion is very well reflected in artwork, is the band created in 1992 (in the period 1988 – 1992 they add a name Scum) in Tumba, Stockholm region. I especially mentioned, of course, what’s typical for me, indirectly, just this band, because it’s extremely well known to every single metalhead worldwide. By the way, I really have no idea where controversy surrounding this ensemble came from. Well, but maybe I was the only one who had a pleasure of meeting people who said this isn’t any fucking death metal.
Anyway, “Fury Untamed” is very solid album and only a one-time listen to this EP is insufficient for me. I also hope we won’t wait as long for another musical child of Valkenrag as we did in the case of “Fury…”! So, if you like melodic death metal, feel free to contact a label or the band itself! Of course, time we have now, let’s call them digital ones, do you don’t have to write them to get the possibility to order a copy – it’s enough to visit their profile on a portal in which name is word “band” and click a link. But I’m more than sure it’ll give a huge kick to guys if you show them support by contacting them.
