Bastards and Conquerors
| Bastards and Conquerors | ||||
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| Sworn studio album | ||||
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Publication |
October 30, 2009 |
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| Label (s) | Twilight Records | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
9 |
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running time |
48 min 10 s |
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| occupation |
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Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen & Sworn |
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Studio (s) |
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Bastards and Conquerors is the second studio album by the Norwegian extreme metal band Sworn . It was released in Germany and the rest of the world on October 30th, 2009 via Twilight Vertrieb, in Norway, however, only on November 2nd. Lars Jensen's successor Max Wilson can be heard as a singer for the first time on the album .
History of origin
The first announcement of the album, as well as its title and the (preliminary) names of the eight songs written to date, took place on October 9, 2008 on the Myspace blog Sworns. At the end of the year, the names of all nine songs on the album were named, although Ascendant , for Somnolence, was still a working title, and the pieces were not all finished. At the beginning of 2009 the songwriting for Bastards and Conquerors was completed after around two years . The recordings began on January 19, 2009 in the Bergen Conclave Media Studio . Originally it was planned after Leif Herland left the band to have the bass tracks recorded by Kjørsvik or Hope, but Dag "Dreggen" Anderson joined Sworn during the recordings in February 2009 and therefore also took over the basses during the recordings. In mid-February, the band had already recorded everything except vocals and bass, so that mixing of the album could already be started, and the final track list was presented. The recordings were completed in March. The mastering was done in the Stockholm Cutting Room Studio by the well-known producer Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen, who had also done the final mix for In Flames , Dimmu Borgir , Within Temptation and other well-known metal bands.
Instead of a single release, Sworn released the two songs Carnal Monuments and Damnation Spawned on March 28, 2009 on her Myspace profile for free streaming . The album was originally supposed to be released in May 2009. On June 17th, however, Sworn announced that the release had to be postponed indefinitely due to minor complications, with the prospect of a release before the end of the year. To shorten the waiting time, the band released the song Beyonder on July 14th on their Myspace profile. On September 22nd, the album release for October 30th, 2009 was announced. The theme song The Bastard, the Conqueror was made available for listening on Myspace a week before the album was released on October 23. The last song to be pre-released was Prophecies from the Land of Lost Voices on the promo CD of the November / December 2009 issue (# 63) of Legacy magazine .
Bastards and Conquerors finally appeared worldwide on October 30th, 2009, except for Norway, where the release took place on November 2nd.
Track list
All songs were composed by Christoffer Kjørsvik, all lyrics written by Tom Ian Rogne Klungland.
| # | title | length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prophecies from the Land of Lost Voices | 6:11 |
| 2 | The Bastard, the Conqueror | 08:31 |
| 3 | Summoning the Sinister | 05:54 |
| 4th | Beyonder | 05:35 |
| 5 | Somnolence | 01:35 |
| 6th | Damnation spawned | 07:57 |
| 7th | Carnal Monuments | 05:21 |
| 8th | The Archaic Wraith | 05:19 |
| 9 | Descendant | 04:06 |
style
music
As on her debut album The Alleviation, Sworn combines Black , Heavy and various other Metal influences. The music can best be assigned to Extreme Metal with strong influences from melodic Black Metal. With Somnolence and Descendant , two pure acoustic pieces have been composed again. Many songs stand out because of their extremely well thought-out composition. Daniel “Nilgoun” Dervaric from the webzine dark-news.de compares the riffing of the song The Archaic Wrath with Catamenia , but says that “everything just [seems] to be more mature and coherent”.
Max Wilsons' vocals are screaming typical of the Black Metal genre , although deep growls are occasionally used as a stylistic device . Clear vocals are not used, but Beyonder has a voice sample at the beginning.
Playing the drums is very diverse. As usual for the Black Metal, many will blast beats and fast double-bass -Läufe used, but also many other ways to play as variations of the basic beats , builds on it bearing rhythms and many fill-ins characterize the style of play Klung country.
Just like playing the drums, the guitar characters are mostly complex, whereby, unlike on The Allevitation, no guitar solos are included in the compositions on the album. In some songs, especially intensely in Summoning the Sinster , the playing technique of tapping or hammering is used. The bass has mostly only an accompanying function, but is not completely overshadowed by the guitars, and occasionally takes over the melody for a short time as in Damnation Spawned .
Texts
The lyrics are all written in English by drummer Tom Ian Rogne Klungland . Central themes of the lyrics are darkness, despair, pain, suffering and death, madness, mental illness and insanity.
criticism
Bastards and Conquerors received mostly positive reviews from the trade press and each time almost the highest number of points when evaluating the album. The album could not reach entry into the album charts of a country. Occasionally Bastards and Conquerors are assumed to have slight weaknesses compared to the previous album, although this opinion is not shared by all sides.
Daniel “Nilgoun” Dervaric from the webzine dark-news.de awards 9.5 out of ten points for the album and comes to the conclusion
“I never would have thought that Sworn would be able to build on their debut The Alleviation in such an excellent way, but I should be taught better. All songs are worth listening to across the board and offer plenty of variety. Despite noticeable further development in songwriting, they stayed true to themselves and just Sworn! Bastards and Conquerors is in no way inferior to its predecessor and has its own highlights. It is your own fault if you don't buy this CD! Points are only deducted for the mentioned passage in the second song and the mentioned crackling intro. "
Michael "Hannes" Schindler from the webzine heavyhardes.de gave a somewhat more restrained, but very positive review . He awarded five out of six points and said the following about the album:
“On the whole, the quintet has remained true to its direction, the listener can still expect slightly bombastic, but mainly epic and at the same time slightly melancholic Black Metal […]. The music has already gained a bit of intensity, which for me is both a curse and a blessing. Because even if the listener is drawn even deeper into the soundscapes of Sworn, the Norwegians cannot avoid that some things sound very similar and therefore the individual pieces sometimes have very few unique selling points. [...] But mostly the music is just good and can completely pull me under its spell. [...] Despite all of my little criticisms, Bastards And Conquerors has become a clean album again, which also has its own style. "
Dominik “Holopain” from pure-metal.de also praises the album very much and awards it five out of six points.
“Great album without question, fans of Primordial or Dissection can grab it blindly, but Pagan fans are also in good hands with this disc. As I said, the band does not limit itself to a certain genre, but rather manages a skillful balancing act between many, so the fan community should grow and grow. "
Claudia "Kruemel" Machwirth from the webzine Bleeding for Metal rates the album with 8.5 out of ten points and recommends the album without reservation :
“The Norwegians SWORN did everything right on 'Bastards and Conquerors'. In my opinion there are no song failures on this disc. Hence unreserved recommendation for all those who are into melodic extreme metal. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ New album! myspace.com (English); Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ↑ a b c A Year… myspace.com (English); Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ↑ a b c SWORN's cover // Bastards And Conquerors . myspace.com (English); Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ↑ a b Studio update . myspace.com (English); Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ↑ Bastards and Conquerors - CD . twilight-mailorder.de, accessed on June 27, 2011.
- ↑ New songs at myspace! myspace.com (English); Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ↑ Album update . myspace.com (English); Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ↑ Yet another track uploaded! myspace.com (English); Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ↑ Bastards and Conquerors - Out 10/30/09 . myspace.com; accessed on June 27, 2011 (English).
- ↑ New songs up! myspace.com (English); Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ↑ Sworn @ Legacy # 63 . myspace.com (English); Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ↑ a b c nilgoun: Sworn - Bastards and Conquerors (review and criticism) . dark-news.de; Retrieved December 17, 2013.
- ↑ a b Hannes: CD Review: Sworn - Bastards And Conquerors . heavyhardes.de; Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ↑ Daniel: Sworn . music-scan.de; Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ↑ Sworn . myspace.com; accessed on June 27, 2011 (English).
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Bastards and Conquerors Review. pure-metal.de; Retrieved January 23, 2011
- ↑ Kruemel: Sworn - Bastards And Conquerors . bleeding4metal.de; Retrieved June 24, 2014.