A Transylvanian Funeral
Gorgos Goetia

March 2013
Released: 2013, Forbidden Records
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Metal-Rules.com UK Team

It was in 2009 that ‘Sleepwalker’ released ‘A Transylvanian Funeral’; the self-titled debut album under his own label and at the time sharing his name of his recording studio ‘Third Eye Audio’.



In 2010 he released ‘The Outsider’ and 2013 is his release of Gorgos Goetia via ‘Forbidden Records’, being his 3rd release to date.



I’m always impressed when you see a one-man project producing great albums and this release is a step in a new direction for ‘Sleepwalker’.



From the outset the album goes straight into the raw, dark sounds of black metal, with no drum machines, no keyboards and minimum production, which does reflect on the sound, but doesn’t deflect from the album as the rawness is great for this genre.

There is a moody concept throughout the tracks, with no crafted layers of guitar harmonies but instead replaced with primitive chords and haunting arpeggios.



Using of live drums for the recordings, was a great step as it holds better energy and sound, with Sleepwalker still handling all the writing, recording and production of this album exclusively, with great power, energy and darkness.



This isn’t the greatest Black Metal album I’ve heard but its certainly not the worse, just your typical primitive occult black metal sounds with some really great tracks in this album, filled with blast beats and heavy riffs, but still holds a softer feel than most other black metal releases I’ve heard recently. Vocals are raw and not too high pitched but do also have some metal screams and demonic chants with some deeper vocals thrown in too, with each track being quite long in length.



This is a great album and definitely one for you black metal fans out there!



Review by Jo Blackened