Old Man’s Child, Galder's side/solo project, has really come up big on the creative end with their 2009 LP release “
Slaves of the World”. Under a template of contemporary black metal, the beauty of this album comes from Galder’s daring insistence on including a myriad of other metal styles to further embellish compositional themes already well pronounced and musically defined. On another dimension, the variants within each song isn’t just limited to style, but also includes speed, cadence, and instrumentation.
As much as Galder’s musical abilities have most undoubtedly shone on this album, a very special mention should be given to the only other musician to have been included on this work - drummer Peter Wildoer. Under Galder’s direction, Wildoer provides much more than the glue that keeps each track musically together - his willingness to dive into less traditionally black metal beats and cadences as well has ended up not only enhancing the creative results of a number of tracks but also serves as a highlighting showcase of his own talents as well (“Saviors of
Doom”, “The Crimson Meadows”, and “On The
Devil’s Throne”). Other tracks of note from a drumming perspective include his use of snare (“
Path Of
Destruction”) and limited use of double bass blast beats (“
Slaves of the World”) when it would be so easy to do otherwise.
Galder is the man, however. As writer, singer, and guitar/bass player, the most complimentary statement that can be attributed to him is that none of his tracks or lines suffer in relation to each other. The bass is well grounded (“Saviors of
Doom” for example), the vocals are intentionally emphasized for sound rather than lyrical clarity, and all of his guitar outputs are well heard and delivered, including from his lead work his solos (“
Unholy Foreign
Crusade” and “On The
Devil’s Throne”) fills (“
Unholy Foreign
Crusade”) and wails (“Ferden Mot Fiendens
Land”).
As for the rhythm - this is the greatest aspect of the record. Speeds vary from slow to fast, sometimes within the songs themselves. Of course, within those songs there some very nice time signature changes (including possible best song “On The
Devil’s Throne”) to be heard. As for the overall style, the range goes from classic black (“Ferden Mot Fiendens
Land”) to contemporary black (“The crimson Meadows”) to a healthy dose of thrash riffs peppered throughout the entire project (“
Saviours of
Doom”, “
Unholy Foreign
Crusade” and the moshing rhythm line underneath the solo on “”On The
Devil’s Throne”).
For Galder and
Old Man’s Child, 2009‘s “
Slaves of the World” succeeds more than producing something simply different, but entirely better. It is a very pleasing record to the metal ear.
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