Arawn 

Welsh Black Metal

Self Financed 2007

Arawn's second demo sees mastermind Bleiddwn-y-Nos returning with a stronger and more well thought out endeavor.  He has obviously invested increased time in composing more interesting songs and focused on making the transitions within each song smoother so the release has a more seamless feel to it.  Not really biting off any one scene too much this demo has a strong Celtic feel to a lot of the melodies and incorporates heavy doses of traditional folk influences and metallizes those roots to form Arawn's core sound.  Sometimes the production is a little uneven like during the title track where the drums are sometimes too weak sounding and the vocals tend to over power parts of the song.  Also on the opening of the Ancient Enemy the vocals are too low in the mix.  Each song is fairly long and there many varying moods and styles woven into each track.  Arawn is much more about atmosphere and feeling than about raging anger and consequently the songs rarely rise above the slower end of the tempo scale.  As I listen to Welsh Black Metal I feel this is more of a tribute to the mystical past rather than being grounded in anything modern.  As I see it, Arawn is on the verge of developing into something special.  If Bleiddwn-y-Nos continues to develop musically and as a songwriter then I envision him putting Wales on the map for extreme metal.  His abilities will eventually overcome all his shortcomings.  Pagan inspired black metal could very well be witnessing the birth of a new and shining star.