Tharaphita origins from Estonia and consists of five members, all of which play/played in several other metal bands. The band produced two full-length albums before this one, “Raev” in 1998 and “ Tumedate Tunnete Kütkeis” in 2001.

Tharaphita plays some sort of mix between folky Viking metal and heavy/power metal. The lyrical theme is primeval magic fantasy battle folklore (or the other way around) which is brought to live in an atmosphere of strength and victory. Simple mid-tempo melodies give the music a high ‘sing along’ amount.

Because of this, the catchy music gets boring very fast. The vocals are a rough husky shouting, too melodious to be screams/grunts. In a way they make me think of the vocals of earlier Pyogenesis (from Germany) or the non-clean vocals in Biohazard. Clean vocals sometimes backup the lead singer and several heavy metal guitar solo’s can be heard.

To me, as black metal fanatic, Tharaphita just doesn’t do it. Perhaps this music might be interesting for heavy metal fans or fantasy metal (ugh) addicts.