Shadowlord - Batavorum CD Review

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2006-05-01 : Corpse : Link

Shadowlord - Batavorum
Review By : Arcane
Added : 01/05/'06
Score 90 %

Printable Version
Website : Shadowlord
Label : Black Label Management
Genre : Melodic black metal
Tracks : 8
Playtime : 42:02
Release : 01-05-2006

Alltough I have lived in Nijmegen (NL), the hometown of Shadowlord, I’ve never heard their music or seen them playing live. When I got the chance to review Shadowlord’s latest album ‘Batavorum’ I was eager to find out if I should be ashamed or not.

The 1st song, ‘Legion X’, is about a legion of Caesar that had to oppose the revolt in the the city now known as Nijmegen. The song is very dark. Especially the keyboards and the vocals give the music this sinister touch. It reminds me a little of the older Dimmu Borgir. I really like this song, the composition is great.


But this is not the only song about Nijmegen. The song ‘Moenen en Mariken’ is about the in the Netherlands wellknown story about ‘Mariken van Nieumeghen’, a girl that meets ‘Moenen’ who is actually the devil in disguise. But for those who cannot understand the Dutch language, Shadowlord also tells the story in English in the song ‘Moenen’
The songs on ‘Batavorum’ are very good compostions, I must say. Lots of great riffs, nice keyboard parts, great vocals, which have this nice doom metal touch. I really like that. The music is very melodic and is filled with emotion.


I’ve heard better productions but it's not bad at all. I assure you, if this record would have the same production like the later Dimmu borgir albums this would be the album of the year of many black metal fans.


Another thing I really like is the fact Shadowlord made a video clip of the song ‘Moenen’. And I must say that it is done very nice. I’ve seen many video clips of big budget bands that are really crap, but this clip is really a nice piece of art if you'd ask me.

Alltough I mentioned the name Dimmu Borgir twice, Shadowlord sure isn't a Dimmu clone. Sure, nowadays it is very hard to say a band is original, but Shadowlord sounds to me like no other band. Of course I hear some resemblance to other bands, like Eminenz, Limbonic Art or the first album of Gehenna. I really recommend this album to all the black metal fans. It sure will be in my list of top albums of this year.

Line Up:
Daphne Alberda - Keyboards
Lesley de Santy - Guitars, 3rd party vocals
Daniël de Vries - Drums
Richèl Miseroy - Guitars
Ruud Nillesen - Bass
Marit Pietersen – Screams and clean vocals
Cor van Maris – Grunts and vocals

Track Listing:
1. Legion X
2. Batavorum
3. Moenen En Mariken
4. Our Goddess Will Rise
5. Amducias
6. Anatomy Of Melancholy
7. Archangels Fall
8. Moenen En Mariken (English)

Bonus: video of ‘Moenen’
2006-03-31 : Corpse : Link
SHADOWLORD (NED)
BATAVORUM
Reviewed by Neithan on Sunday 26 March 2006.
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Shadowlord is a band from Nijmegen in the Netherlands. They are heavily inspired by Dutch history and literature: a concept they continue to carry out on their new album “Batavorum”. The title is taken from ‘Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum’, a late Roman name for this city. Shadowlord is still to be categorized in the league of dark metal: they have become less bombastic than on “Scourge of Heaven”, and the development is this time more in the technical way, and towards black thrash. Yet that could also be because the volume is a little less loud than on its predecessor “Scourge of Heaven”. On the album the band still combines thrash metal, death metal (also because vocalist Cor may try to rasp like a raven, yet he still has more of a death metal tone in his way of singing) and viking and melodic black metal aspects: especially the atmosphere of the keyboards remind me a lot of Dimmu Borgir’s “Enthrone Darkness Triumphant”, but the guitars are tuned like a Viking metal band.

Opening ‘Legion X’ starts the story of the founding of the city where this band is based, and opens fast with a mighty oriental guitar riff. Lyrically, the song is carried on in ‘Batavorum’, home of the tenth Legion at that time. And where as ‘Legion X’ is generally fast, with epic breaks in between, the semi-title track (‘Batavodurum’) is more the other way around. After that, we make a leap in time to get to ‘Moenen en Mariken’, based on the medieval Dutch opus of Mariken van Nieumeghen; a tale about an innocent girl seduced by the devil (Moenen) and finally saved by the mercy of mother Mary. In that song, the band goes into the direction of the epic character of Dutch Slechtvalk, just less pagan and doing the medieval character of the original poem just right. After these three songs, the band orientates on more international aspects.
‘Our Goddess Wil Rise’ is a typical melodic black fast track. ‘Amducias’ is not a song with lyrics about a deserted Roman legionnaire, but an intro to ‘Anatomy of Melancholy, in which I sense once more a strong Dimmu Borgir feeling, just with totally different kind of vocals and less blackened. That same goes for ’Archangels Fall’, although that one is on occasions sheer metal, with some nice soloing.

Having said this, I must say that the musicianship on this album is good, and shows the progression of the band, both as musicians and composers. So far the good thing: the bad thing is that the tracks are rather similar. In order to make the jump to a higher (international) level, with perhaps finally a real label behind them, they should create more variety without going beyond the musical boundaries of this band, and I guess that is where the challenge for the band’s future is. Nevertheless I must say that individually, all songs most certainly stand their ground!

As a bonus the band has also recorded an English version of ‘Moenen en Mariken’, simply called ‘Moenen’, and added a video of that song, although I doubt whether it will be frequently played at a metal video station; the clip looks more like an animation project from an art student, and I think not so many biased metal heads can appreciate that. My advice is to stick to the pure audio part, as these tracks are convincing enough, with the Dutch version of ‘Moenen en Mariken’ as my personal favorite (a matter of personal taste I guess). Perhaps that is mainly because it has a somewhat different approach than the other songs on this album. For more info, go to the band’s website, or mail their management,
2006-02-08 : corpse : Link
It’s been two years ago since the Dutch metal heads of Shadowlord released their last album ‘Scourge Of Heaven’. A lot has happened in those two years; keyboard player Dave left the band just after the recordings of ‘Scourge Of Heaven’ and bass player Arno left the band to focus on his other band Am-Tuat. Both have been replaced; Dave by Daphne and Arno by Ruud, who is also in Sammath.
So much for the background information, let’s talk about their new album. As you might have guessed, if you know your Dutch and Roman history that is, ‘Batavorum’ deals most of the time with the history of the oldest city of The Netherlands, Nijmegen. The Song ‘Moenen En Mariken’ is about the famous Dutch story about Mariken van Nieumeghen and Shadowlord gave it a new twist. ‘Legion X’ is about Julius Caesar’s favorite battle legion,to the area where Nijmegen is based these days.

Musically the band has grown a lot in the past couple of years.

The keyboards had a prominent role on the previous album and not everybody liked that. This time the keyboards aren’t as prominent as on ‘Scourge Of Heaven’ and that is in favor of the music. In my opinion that music Shadowlord makes these days has little to do with the black metal they used to play in their early days. Although the vocals of Cor and Marit are still brutal as hell, the music takes a more melodic direction. ‘Batavorum’ was recorded and mixed at New Road Records and the people at New Road did a good job. And as a little bonus ‘Batavorum’ contains a cool, but sometimes a bit chaotic video of ‘Moenen En Mariken’ which is directed by Bart Schoutete. My only question is why this band hasn’t been signed yet!? More info on Shadowlord? Click here or send them an e-mail.
(Lars) 8,4 /10

© Rockezine Jul 27, 2005