High Roller Records, sea-blue vinyl, ltd 400, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, 16 pages booklet, 01 Ancient Doom Metal 02 Young God Resurrected 03 Master of the Lake 04 Far Northern Corner 05 ALU (My Protection) 06 The Liberating Spells Of Fire Scald from Yarsoslavl in Russia were formed in the second half of 1993. A year later their first proper demo tape "North Winds" was recorded. However, it was their cassette album under the original title of "Will Of Gods Is A Great Power", released in October 1997 on MetalAgen (one of the biggest labels in Russia at the time), that made them an underground cult name in international doom circles. At this point in time their charismatic singer Agyl was already dead (he was tragically killed in a train accident on September 6th 1997), and the band as such didn't exist anymore. 24 years later, in 2021, High Roller Records issued the ultimate edition of the album under the new title of "Will Of The Gods Is Great Power". As a result, Scald were gaining battalions of new fans and went on to achieve a whole new level of popularity. After a one-off live appearance at the Hammer Of Doom festival in 2019 and a 7" single called "There Flies Our Wail!" on High Roller in 2021, Scald are back for good with a brand new studio album aptly christened "Ancient Doom Metal". It was recorded by the four original Scald members Velingor (bass), Harald (guitars), Karry (guitars), Ottar (drums and percussion) plus Felipe Plaza Kutzbach (known for his work with Procession and Capilla Ardiente) on vocals. Bassist Velingor indeed sees a direct spiritual connection between Scalds original debut album "Will Of The Gods Is Great Power" and their brand new offering: "Despite the fact that the first Scald album was composed and recorded back in the 90s, and "Ancient Doom Metal" was created during last three years, they are worked in the same style. Both albums are filled with the same atmosphere - that of the north, of ancient Scandinavia and Russia. In both cases the music and lyrics are based on mythology and mysticism of these regions. Of course, now we have become much more experienced musically than in the 90s, but we tried to keep the epic vibe of northern cold vastness, the very same we managed to create back then. And it is very important that Felipe feels and expresses it as well as we do." As Velingor explains, songs like the haunting "The Master Of The Lake" are quite heavily influenced not only by classic epic doom metal but also folk music: "We sometimes use elements of not only Slavic, but folk music of the North in general. But it's worth noting that Scald is not a folk metal band. Therefore, these elements do not prevail in our creativity. As for 'The Master Of The Lake' - this song is filled to the brim, both in music and in lyrics, with the dark, cold mysticism of the North." "As for the lyrics in general", he continues, "it was me who was responsible for the basic ideas. I found inspiration in ancient Scandinavian, Slavic and Finno-Ugric legends (after all, our entire Yaroslavl homeland in ancient times was a crossroads of all these cultures), and used some scientific articles on the subject."
