Sometimes the background of a band affords far more surprises than their music, a fact which is fully applicable for the second SVARTBY release. The Russian band is playing Pagan Metal in the vein of a wellknown (maybe the world famous is a little exaggeration) Finnish band but as “major” difference with Swedish lyrics – so nothing changed since the release of their debut in 2007. It’s really difficult to review “Riv, Hugg Och Bit” (“Rip, Chop and Bite”) without connecting their music with the big brother Troll from Finland (by now everybody should known which band I’m referring to!). But honestly speaking the presented 14 songs – even if the layout is perfectly suitable for this kind of music – are very seldom in the position to offer something unique (on a musical level) and it nearly seems that SVARTBY are chained to the musical universe of their idols. So consequently there are only a handful of remarkable songs like ‘Ensam Ensling’ on this release – keyboards and average Humpa Metal everywhere. So “Riv, Hugg Och Bit” is an album only for the die hard fans of this style and hardly something for the normal Voices readers. www.trollzorn.de, www.svartby.com