Independent Release
Review by Tony Cannella
From The Netherlands, Vetrar Draugurinn (Icelandic for Winter Ghosts) is the new band featuring some of the Dutch finest and most underrated musicians. Guitarist Eric Hazebroek was previously a member of the excellent band Stream of Passion, he has joined up with vocalist extraordinaire Marjan Welman (Autumn, Ayreon), bassist Douwe de Wilde (The Saturnine – who has recently left the band and replaced by Arjan Hejden) and drummer Jim van de Kerkhof (All For Nothing) and thus Vetrar Draugurinn was born. Their debut EP “I” has just been released and released and it can boast 21-minutes and 4-songs worth of outstanding, dark, down-tuned music. Marjan Welman is a fantastic choice as a singer for this outfit and the band has a great sound and chemistry throughout the EP. The music on “I” can best be described as melancholy with a hint of mourning and sadness. Track one on “I”, “Bleak Earth” opens with an intro of swirling winds before delving into a hard charging, straight-forward opening number. Tempo wise, this is probably the fastest song on the record and the guitar riff is simply huge. The next song is “Vigil (For the Lost Children of Our Generation)”. This is a great song with some cool tempo changes and another solid riff. “Mother of Northern Skies” is next and whilst this is one of the heavier tracks it also has a deliberate pacing and thus one of my favorite songs. The mournful “Solis” brings the EP to a rather satisfying conclusion. Vetrar Draugurinn has given us just a sampling of what we can expect on future releases. I like what I heard on the “I” EP and I look forward to hearing more from Vetrar Draugurinn in the future.
Rating – 85/100
Tracklist
- Bleak Earth
- Vigil (For the Lost Children of Our Generation)
- Mother of Northern Skies
- Solis
Line Up
- Marjan Welman – Vocals
- Eric Hazebroek – Guitars
- Douwe de Wilde – Bass
- Jim van de Kerkhof – Drums