Band:	Holy Blood
Album:	The Wanderer
Style:	Black metal, Melodic death metal, Folk metal
Release date:	May 2002

01. Bogatyr Gates In Capital Town In Kiev
02. The Wanderer
03. Kill
04. The Warrior
05. Morning
06. In The Lake Of Fire
07. The Poor World
08. The Dnieper
09. On Drakkares Of Fate
10. Cold Winds
11. Kill [Remix]

"Странник" ("Strannik") is the original title of the first album of the Ukrainian group Holy Blood, better known at the international market with its English translation "The Wanderer." The style of the band is defined as melodic Christian pagan viking black metal. A very interesting style but heartwarming to know that there is indeed at least one group who dares to combine all these characteristics in their music. Some may love it and some may hate it but that's not the main thing.

"The Wanderer" seems an interesting work. Probably appealing to fantasy fans because of its cover with an old man walking in woods very similar to Gandalf from the illustrations of "The Lord Of The Rings" by John Howe. The logo of the group is decent as well. When one starts to play the disc in the player, the parade-like sounds of the intro called "Bogatyr Gates In Capital Town In Kiev" (Kiev is the capital of Ukraine for those who didn't know it until now) open the gates indeed and push the listener inside the environment of Holy Blood.

The music is ordinary black/death metal. In the song "Kill" there is nothing but grunts and screams and keyboard passages which remind you of Dimmu Borgir's earlier releases. The voice of Feodor Buzilevich isn't exactly Shagrath's but he manages the songs well. Folk melodies and dreaming female singing from a far away place stress on the folk/pagan metal. One can easily imagine a typical Slavic maiden walking between birch trees and singing of her beloved one who's out on some wild killing spree somewhere. Grand Slavic spirit emerges.

The Christian side of the band is always present. There are songs which mention Christ in a positive light and the brutal track "Kill" encourages to kill Satan inside oneself but otherwise the lyrics are in no way annoying nor aggressive so that anti-Christians won't have to be scared of this band. More often the lyrics concentrate on virtues of life, battles and hope. There's usually a positive message in the lyrics, sometimes similar to the thoughtful songs by Elvenking. The lyrics are sung in Russian which is also another plus. They sound beautiful and if they were in English, it would drag down the originality of the band for sure.

Most outstanding pieces of the album are for instance "In The Lake Of Fire" with very enjoyable passages and anger and passion in it, "On Drakkares Of Fate" and "Cold Winds" with their beautiful messages and the title track itself as the summary of the goodness of the album. All in all out of the eleven tracks of the album six can be considered good and definitely better than average fillers. Only the bonus track, the remix version of "Kill" is out of place and doesn't fit at all with its cheap disco/trance sound.

"The Wanderer" is the beginning of the promising career of a fine band from the Eastern European scene. In general, this album can be considered a success.