Patria
Nihil Est Monastica

Nothing is Monastic, might be the from latin translated title of this album which is said to be the fifth ritual of South American black metallers Patria. It is their fourth album which is said to be staying true to the spirit of the primitive black metal, organic and rustic it is described to be. Not religious or political, but they do have a typical black metal looking album so one cannot be described to be very excited about that. As a black metal album it is, it is said to be an album that is not for everyone but then again a question that just sprung to mind, is primitive black metal really for anyone? It is generally not for me as it is more often than not silly and lame, but I never use preconceptions when reviewing an album.

It is built from a primitive black metal foundation, but has some fresh elements along with some atmospheric elements.It sounds quite dark and sort of devilish, evil in a way. In a sense I think that it sounds pretty much like the primitive black metal should sound, evil. The production is raw and dark, much better than the productions that sound like coming from a polish earth cellar which is quite common in the genre. So, I think that we can call this a production of decent quality. The album has thirteen track of which one is a bonus that is a cover and twelve real track and it plays of a big chunk of time.

Like most albums released, this one has gotten generally positive reviews on the interweb. That however, is unfortunately no indication of anything as most internet reviewers are overly positive and uncritical. To me it is a rather good album, the songs are as I think black metal shall be, it is so for around eight tracks at least. After that I am getting fed up with the songs that are all quite similar to one another and that makes the album feel extremely long because you imagine it reaching its end and picking up the ipod to change album more than once during this playing time because you are certain it can’t go on for any longer. But it does. I think a primitive black metal album that is good can only be so for around a half hour because then it just gets boring no matter what. Maybe there are some exceptions to this rule but this album is not one of those. A quite good album that ends up a lot less good thanks to the lack of murdering.

In the end I think they ruined a potentially good album because this is just too long to really work. Sure you say that in today’s world you can just use a digital sales thing and buy some tracks or something. And although that is true we judge albums in their entirety so that is not a thing we do and if you think of the time it takes to play the cassette with this album as it is much more difficult skipping songs on a cassette, then you’ll understand the difficulty of keeping your interest going for the entire playing time. Having nagged about playing times for most of this review I can conclude that the album is decent but it is not for me as it cannot keep me interested all the way through. If you are a black metaller your opinion might differ from mine, so if your favourite music is dark and primitive you may have something for you in this one.

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