Style: raw black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: The Lakota tribe
Thoughts: What a pleasant surprise. Of all the themes that I thought black metal would tackle, Native Americans were not one of them.... and I never expected it to be done this well.
The themes of the Wild West and black metal have been done before - to various degrees of success, and not very often. Maȟpíya Lúta offers us Woohitke as their first foray into this largely unexplored combination of theme and genre.
The first thing that stands out is the production. This is raw. RAW. It's hard to hear everything going on, yet somehow it is clear as day. The drums sound distant and like the drummer is hitting a tin can. I recently mused how poor drum production ruined an album for me, that is not the case here. The drums are nearly perfect and it's all because of the production.
The guitars, oh man the guitars. This is where the album really shines. These riffs are nothing less than epic, inspirational even. These riffs are written with a sense of purpose and the music benefits greatly from it.
For most of the album it's straight forward black metal with a twin guitar attack. They dual with each other and create melodies and atmospheres that only this genre can. Sometimes though they reach into the source material and start showing a bit of that distinctive Wild West theme. A small melody here, an acoustic break there. A small note progression somewhere else. They are dotted all over the album and they are what elevates this album way above a typical raw black metal album.
The album only has three songs and is around thirty minutes long. During those thirty minutes I can think of maybe one or two riffs that didn't do it for me. When there are likely over a hundred riffs on this album that is quite a feat. This is easily one of the best raw black metal albums I've heard in some time and it sets the standard for western themed black metal.
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