Oyhra: На язычніцкай зямлі (1996)

I could be wrong, but I think this is my first album by a band from Belarus.  That seems likely because Belarus is not exactly known as a metal haven.  There may be quite a scene there, but I can not think of any bands from the country.  I had not even heard of this band for instance.  This album was a throw-in from the seller from whom I bought the last several bands reviewed here (Batushka, Kroda, Nokturnal Mortum and Maniac Butcher).  And so, here we are: most likely my first band from Belarus.

Oyhra had a very short career and released very little music.  It is a one-man project of Radzim that released three demos from 1996 through 1998, and a compilation of two unreleased albums from 1998 through 2000.  Unsurprisingly given the one-man status, origins in a small Eastern European country, and only releasing a few demos, this is a black metal band.

This is raw and primal pagan black metal with heavy doses of folk melodies and some very intriguing almost-tribal drumming.  The production value of this demo is decidedly lo-fi and it is not incredibly "heavy" in that there is very little bottom end.  The distortion does not come through very well either, mostly due to the production job.  So it is a decidedly rough offering.  Repeated listens reveal some impressive guitar melodies and a stark, ritualistic atmosphere, however. 

This is a grower.  It did not do much for me the first time or two through, but it has become more interesting to me with repeated listens.  I do not know if I would track down anything else by Oyhra, but at least it is one of the more interesting throw-ins I have gotten recently.