LOITS „“Vere Kutse Kohustab” (Obliged by the Call of Blood)”

Music: Black Metal
Country: Estonia
Website: www.loits.org
Cool Songs: Vanade Leegionaride Laul, Soomepoiss

Much like ENTOMBED playing “death’n’roll”, Estonia’s LOITS has created its own style of extreme metal, ala black metal, mixed with rock’n’roll, which they would come to describe as “flak’n’roll.” The group mentioned the meaning of this term saying flak rhymes with black (like black metal) and means anti-air gun, so basically it describes the band as “militant black metal rock’n’roll”, a fitting description.

‘Vere Kutse Kohustab’ consists of twelve tracks of mid-paced, rockin’ groove black metal. Although this album contains a few moments of short blasting drum beats and quick tremolo guitar riffs, the majority of the album consists of straight, down picking, mid-paced grooves. Also, the faster moments do not show the band playing at hyper speed, the music and style just gets louder, more intense, and slightly faster. Through the majority of the album, the drummer hits the skins or kicks the bass drum at a medium pace, but aptly fills in musical breaks with rolling double bass and quick blasts.

‘Vere Kutse Kohustab’ has a slight ethnic leaning with the band alluding to their native Estonia folk music. The most obvious reference to Estonian music comes in the fact that all lyrics are sung in the Estonian language. This language is the perfect fit for the medieval guitar riffs and moments like the album’s acoustic beginning and synthetic (it sounds like a keyboard) accordion. The slow, eerie accordion fits this type of music much better than the happy, fast accordion of FINNTROLL. The keyboard accordion reappears on the sixth track, this time sounding more like militant brass.

Although not overbearingly obvious, a militant vibe persists through out the album, especially during the bold, clean vocal narrations. The one sheet that came with this album carefully made it clear that LOITS are not Nazi by explaining the country’s involvement in World War II. So in addition to receiving a descent black metal album, I also got a history lesson.

‘Vere Kutse Kohustab’ is a descent black metal album, but will by no means take the black metal scene by storm. The guitar rhythms rock and are catchy. The keyboard sections add a touch of folk of the already-folksy guitar rhythms. The main complaint I have with this album, though, is the pace tends to drag on without much change. If the group incorporated more speedy change ups and added more keyboard sections like the parts I mentioned above, it would make for a much better listen. Fans that cannot get enough of the mid-pace rhythms of KHOLD, SATYRICON’s slower moments, OPHTHALMIA, and older DIMMU BORGIR may want to give LOITS a listen.

note: 6.5/10

Tracklist

1. Soomepoiss
2. Eesti Auks
3. Aeg Ärgata
4. Voitluslipp
5. Tuleristsed
6. Vanade Leegionäride Laul
7. Eluruun
8. Nimeta Haud
9. Kodu
10. Furor Aesticus
11. Oskar Ruut
12. Raiugem Ruunideks
Total playing time 55:09

Line-up

Lembetu – guitars, vocals
M. Divine – bass
Markus Karmo – guitars
Gates – guitars
Karje – keyboards
Atso – drums