First impressions can be curious things. On my initial listen of Baskiria's Onogur, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. Faced with what seemed rather unremarkable black metal with some odd folky parts mixed in for the sake of variety, I did not exactly anticipate listening to the album further. However, with a few more listens, the music definitely started to grow on me. While it's far from perfect, it's not a terrible album, by any stretch.

Onogur is Hungarian group Baskiria's first full-length, following an EP produced in 2003. The group has apparently gone through a number of lineup changes during this period; particularly, their guitar section defines the phrase "revolving door", which may explain why their output has been so sparse. The parts themselves are your standard metal ensemble, with nary a keyboard to be found. I've heard comparisons of the group's sound to a slowed-down Marduk, but Dark Funeral seems like a more apt comparison. Well, at least for the black metal riffs.

The band describes their sound as black/death pagan metal, and, for once, this actually fits their sound. True, many of the riffs are the sort of semi-melodic buzzing that one might expect from the cold northern wastes of Scandinavia, but then the pinch harmonics and chugging kick in with the vocals dropping an octave, and it sounds like death metal. Just as you get used to that, the distortion drops out, and the guitars start up a folk melody with tribal drumming in the background.

Suprisingly, this actually works reasonably well. Much of this is due to the songwriting, which keeps continuity between the different riffs. This is done best in the title track, "Onogur", which, in the middle of the song, introduces a nice little folk riff, then repeats it, but in a black metal style. When it repeats again, it accelerates, giving an overall effect of gathering intensity and fury.

Admittedly, the songwriting doesn't always work this well. As I've complained about in so many reviews, many of the songs sound formulaic, and this type of music really doesn't help in giving the listener few straight melodic hooks to catch onto. There are some standout riffs, such as the one mentioned in "Onogur" and the one that opens "Ezredik ev", and the band even throws in a completely acoustic song on the second to last track. Still, these only alleviate the sameness a bit, but at least the overall sound is good.

For an album that initially seems quite typical, this album really surprised me with how distinctive the sound is. I can think of few other pagan metal bands that have this kind of intensity and so few explicit atmospherics, yet the music works on the whole. It's still a bit rough, but there's definitely something promising here. The band currently doesn't have a label; with any luck, this release will attract enough attention for them to get picked up.