Re-release of Skyforger’s debut, originally trickled onto to the market in 1998 by some fly-by-night Dutch label and left to rot in the moonlight, until up n’ coming NY label Paragon rescued it from the abyss. Was it worth the excavation? For sheer lunacy and weirdmetal kicks, most definitely. Skyforger is a Latvian pagan metal band, mixing traditional Baltic folk music with 80’s thrash and contemporary black metal influences (most notably, a very troll-like demonrasp). The result is complete mind-fuckery, with thrashing, smashing, blast-beating mayhem battling flutes and chanting. “Kauja pie Saules” is probably exactly what Skyforger was going for – a 16h century woodcut with werewolves and guys chopping off limbs and heads on poles and a sky full of fire and smoke come to screaming, raging life. The fact that the whole album is sung in Latvian does nothing to diminish the appeal, because you really do get the feeling that Skyforger are channeling the ancients on this one. Ancients with electricity. And distortion pedals. Wild. __________________________________________________

- Sleazegrinder