Aurum Nostrum – Whip of Mind

This LP was the first release by Ring-Tor, who also brought us Blut & Feuer. That means that we are in the German folkloristic corner here. The album, that is pressed on coloured vinyl (somewhere between brown and red), was, to my surprise, already recorded in 1996. The band consists of six members here, with guitars, keyboards, drums and some violin. The album starts with the sound of a marching snare, accompanying female vocals (singing English lyrics with a charming accent) on the song ‘March of no return’. The second song, Battlefields, is a very nice acoustic folky track, followed by Twilight, which reminds me a bit of Dies Natalis.

Most of the other tracks are also rather folky, some rather tranquil, others with dominant drumming, sometimes with male singing, but most of the times with female vocals. Whip of Mind is a promising record, although you can hear that the band is here still in a developing phase. Especially the vocals need some working on, and I think next time some songs with German lyrics would be nice. But the compositions are rather good and I am curious for future releases…

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