• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Evoking Winds are a band that have been around for quite some time, yet it's only recently that they've actually started releasing their music. From what I understand, it started as a personal project with two friends who wanted to make music based on the folklore of Belarus and surrounding countries, but it eventually got some online presence and the duo are working on remastering and releasing the albums they made over the years. This is the first of those albums, originally made way back in 2008 and only now getting any kind of distribution online. If this is any indication, I'd gladly hear more, because this is pretty good.

Toward Homestead is a little over a half hour of relaxed, highly atmospheric Folk Metal that's arguably barely Metal at all. There are harsh vocals, pummeling drums, and strumming tremolo riffs, but the bulk of the music is made up of folk instrumentation and synths, which makes sense considering most of the music on here is just renditions of traditional folk songs. I can understand some people just labeling this as atmospheric music or maybe even dungeon synth instead, but fuck, we let bands like Summoning get away with it back in the day, so I say Evoking Winds count, and they're good enough at what they do that I'm not terribly bothered about it. There's nothing particularly standout about it and closing track "Grateful Night" is a bit jarring due to being based off a traditional winter song that eventually mutated into "Carol of the Bells" (hardly the band's fault, but it still bugs me), but it has plenty of sweeping melodies and atmosphere that takes you to ages past as it celebrates the heritage of the place Evoking Winds calls home, and that's about all it really needs to do. Anyone who prefers their Folk Metal to lean on the folk side will find a lot to love here.