folk metal

Wolf Clan is an album by Ukrainian Pagan Folk Metal group Midgard, released in early April. Forty minutes long, the album has eleven tracks: The Witcher, Black Drakkar, Hero, Berserk, Ritual, Pyre song, Last Frontier, Runes, Warlock, Wolf Clan and MIdgard – Dark Wind. A very interesting album, that shows a digressive, expansive, abrasive and aggressively pungent singular musical style, Wolf Clan has expressively strong and dynamic rhythms, effusively shaped in the strength of exceedingly incisive harmonies, brilliantly built at the axis of majorly effective guitar lines. 

With an imperiously concentrated energy, built at the nefarious sideline of excruciatingly vibrating – but amazingly captivating – rhythms, Wolf Clan, all the way throughout its formidable length, reveals itself to be a graceful and marvelously poetic album, that never loses its quest on lucidity and aggressiveness. Despite following the traditional lines of the genre, a greatly beautiful and genuine sense of originality gives to their sound a sensational uniqueness that outstand Wolf Clan as a major and relentless state of the art work. With one track better than the other, song after song after song delivers to the listener a delightful sonorous experience, that revolves around the glorious and pure perception of a fantastic sensibility, amplified by a vivacious universe of clarity and artistry.            

With an imponderable and ostensibly virtuous synergy, that explores and expands at the wonderfully imperative center of its unusual sound dynamics a narrative that encircles the stream of a perfectly mastered musical technique, Midgard has created Wolf Clan probably as the greatest record of the genre to be released this year. Showcasing a dense and glorifying, but vehemently singular musical stylistic proficiency, there is anything in the underground music scene today to stand for as a possible comparison. 

A great and relentless album, that has all the necessary requirements to be considered one of the greatest masterpieces of the genre, perfect rhythms, dissonant guitar lines, a marvelous convergence of melodies, the occasional interchanging features between clean and harsh vocals and amazingly executed harmonies, created beyond the imponderable capacities of a firmly spiritual  vastness, forms altogether an impeccable set of qualities, by which Wolf Clan deserves to be considered one of the most magnificent albums ever to be conceived in the history of the genre.          


Wagner

folk metal / black metal

Ruoto is an album by Finnish Pagan Folk Metal band Noituma, released on April 13. A concise album, thirty four and a half minutes long, it has seven tracks: Rutonkantaja, Matojen herkkupäivä, Ruoto, Virvatulen kajo, Kaatuneiden muistolle, Jokainen hautaa omansa and Revontulet. With splendidly crafted and well created folk melodies, sidelined by a balanced spirit of greatly consistent compositions, Ruoto is a marvelous album. The first track, Rutonkantaja, already is enough to impress any folk metal enthusiast. With heavy, but consistently energized harmonies, Ruoto is a magnificent masterpiece of the genre, with a surprising degree of audacity and originality infused into the creative nucleus of the music.

With an interesting mixture of black and folk metal, Noituma has a very characteristic style, grounded in cyclic, and sometimes thoroughly irreverent harmonies, profoundly efficient and almost inherently sarcastic. Nonetheless, their sound is fulfilled by a cohesive synergy, that not only perfectly combines these two genres, but works on their innermost qualities in such peculiar techniques, that they managed to create a pervasively singular style of their own.

With more spiritually-orientated and melodic folk stylish pieces, each and every track on Ruoto has its own distinct sonorous identity. With every song sculpted in an almost indulgent state of intuitive sensibility, there is a fascinating degree of beauty delicately inserted in each and every song, with a peculiarly standardized degree of universal infinity colliding directly in the interior anatomy of the soul’s music, to such a degree that you can almost feel the everlasting and inherent strength of Noituma’s impeccable sense of artistry revitalizing all the relativities hidden inside the colorful mountains of your ordinary existence.  

The music of Noituma is the essential description of a fearless and definitive journey of the strongest musical aphorism ever to take place in the history of folk metal music. With Ruoto certainly being one of the most marvelous albums that I’ve heard on the genre, their potential goes beyond any possible description. With a vigorous inclination towards a captivating and salutary sense of originality, this is a band with enough qualities to redefine all the principles that solidified the strength of the genre, converting it into something stronger and fundamentally human.         


Wagner

folk metal / black metal

Home and Heart is the debut album of Laochra, a melodic folk metal project of musician Stíofán De Roiste (Stephen Roche), from Irish folk metal group Celtachor, released on March 31. Almost forty seven minutes long, the album has nine tracks: My Homeland, Tongues of Flame, In Council with King Olan, A Dream of Old White Trees, The Loss of Brianna, Home and Heart, The Deception of King Rythian, Fiadan and The Battle at Lake Ulianith. Profoundly inspired in Irish Celtic mythology, Home And Heart is a beautiful, encapsulating, self-conscious and poetic album, filled with delicate, enchanting and smooth nuances, that transcends temporal concepts of culture, musicality, belief and spirituality, to fully embrace and create in the shroud of a graceful sonorous legacy the marvelous epicenter of an amazingly intricate dimensional life, where everything is completely compromised with the wonderful mist of ancient times.

With the power to fully materialize the embodiment of a philosophic, sentimental, and reflexive poetic tenure, sidelined by colorful and conceptual harmonies, an experimental spirit of technical enhancement has perfectly introduced into Laochra’s debut album the genuine soul of the cultural and spiritual elements of the old ancestral times. With the graceful presence and enchantment of folk instruments, like flutes and whistles, an atmosphere of tenacious influence, vitality, curious fascination, splendid glory and marvelous wisdom is completely evoked, as the lancinating and palpable tissue of the music amazingly creates all the majestic components necessary to conceive the precise nature of the work. 

With beauty, intensity, authenticity and splendor, Home and Heart is an album whose title perfectly exemplifies the spirit of its intentions: to sonorously recreate the home and the heart of the ancestral mythological Celtic culture, and through the power of its vociferating, but smoothly poetic emanating melodic tissue, transport the listener to a world of reverberating and vivaciously conscious beauty, corroborating through the vigorous force of the music the sensorial rescue of the visceral power of a culture that will never die, and should always be celebrated in all elements of its vital force.    

Sonorously splendorous, intense, truthful to its essence, and formidably genuine, in spiritual, musical and technical procedures, Home and Heart, in each and every minute of it, proves itself to be a vigorous and reverberating cornerstone of folk metal music. With special mentions to the first, sixth and seven tracks – My Homeland, Home and Heart and The Deception of King Rythian, respectively – this record is a masterful and glorious work of art, that really captures and perfectly reproduces in a greatly expansive sonorous reality all the essential elements of the genre. Home and Heart deserves to be highlighted as a vibrating and fundamental work, destined to be fully understood, appreciated and to become a reference in the genre, in the years to come. 


Wagner

black metal / folk metal / avant garde

Skadi is an album released on January 20, by American melodic folk metal band The Flight of Sleipnir. Forty five minutes long, and with five tracks – Awaken, Tenebrous Haze, Earthen Shroud, Voices and Falcon White – Skadi is an interesting album, that features a complex mixture of melodic black metal, post metal, folk metal, psychedelic rock and stoner rock, creating a genre entirely new, exceedingly difficult to categorize. 

Nevertheless, setting classifications apart, Skadi is a very intriguing work. Unraveling a band that has created their own peculiar style, most of the music developed by The Flight of Sleipnir showcases a stoner sound, with pronounced black metal vocals all the way through. With a dignifying and unusually compelling technical work, splendidly developed as well as the creative harmonies, Skadi is a singular and largely unexpected album. Heavy and rude, but with slow harmonies, here the apparent contradictions not only work out very well, but solidifies the cohesion of a style amazing to discover, and to listen out loud. After the first two tracks, you rapidly come forward to the conclusion that certainly The Flight of Sleipnir is the pioneer of a genre yet to be named and properly understood. But it certainly sounds not just amazing, but enthusiastically promising.

Sometimes sounding almost like a soul-fueled prog-folk version of Jethro Tull, The Flight of Sleipnir is able to instantly intrigue anyone, and after a few minutes into their sound, they easily captivate the attention of intelligent listeners. I mean, there is so much curious and different elements perfectly combined together on this album, that you suddenly realize that the musical possibilities conquered by this formidable band are effectively endless. Skadi scores high in magnificent moments, being exponentially poetic, philosophic, cosmic and reflexive, all at the same time. With beautifully splendorous guitar lines, amazingly aligned with the sky in an endless night of unforgiving majesty, this record has all the right components that a true and genuine album of melodic Avant-garde metal should have.    

With calm, but imperial and transcendental harmonies, that have at the core of its artistic primacy the majesty of a kingdom of splendor lost somewhere in the sky of a glorious universe unknown, Skadi is a multifaceted and versatile album, whose sound evolves in the linear movement of constantly reshaping waves, that perfectly agglutinates on its superb style the coherence of an integral unity, bound by a marvelous sonorous soul, profoundly capable to shine from within. A fantastic album, unique in the history of the underground scene, Skadi certainly has generated a new path towards the development of exponentially relevant and excitingly new perspectives in the metal genre, as a whole. Sensational, inspirational, monumental, amazing and surprisingly fantastic, we have an enormous debt of gratitude with The Flight of Sleipnir, for creating this peculiar work of musical excellence, for the delight of our ears.   
  

Wagner
 
  

folk metal / symphonic metal

In 2015, I reviewed the debut by Polish symphonic metal band Open Access (read). The band also appeared on our first compilation (download). Then, suddenly, they seemed to vanish from our radar. For a bit over a year, the band was silent, at least in our inbox. Apparently, the band started working on their next effort, a professional full-length that should earn the band a firm spot on the symphonic metal map. So, the key question now is, will 'Into The Wilderness' do that? 

To answer that question, let's have a look at the previous review I wrote for Open Access. Back then, I mentioned "Given time and effort I truly believe this Polish band can become a serious player in the current female fronted symphonic metal scene". So the talent was there and needed to be explored further. Well, in that, Open Access certainly succeeded. It feels like they grew as musicians and as a band. The whole album sounds coherent and well-attuned.

I also wrote "Title-track 'Over A Mountain Peak' even turns away further from the Nightwish-influenced metal". On this new album, the similarities between the two look vanished as Open Access stubbornly follow their own path now, regardless of influences. On this album, that even includes using their own language in songs like 'Plomien Zycia'. This song is a blast by the way, folky, punky and metal as hell.

The violins have remained and that is a very good thing. They add a lot to the pagan atmosphere of the whole thing. 'Chant Of The Forest', for example, is an uplifting metal song, coated with these awesome violins.  Here, these strings remind me more of The Levellers than My Dying Bride, which is perfectly fine for me. In fact, this one might be my favorite song on this album. Also worth mentioning is the technical precision of songs like 'Divided Water's Tide'.

So yes, Open Access has been growing and every single thing on this album showcases that growth. The bandmembers have learned a lot, both technical and as far as songwriting is concerned. The production quality is better, more professional. The whole thing is versatile and powerful enough to remain interesting. 'My Way' is a possible tophit within their genre. So symphonic folk metallers allover the world: this one deserves a spot in your collection, no doubt about that.


​Serge

folk metal

Beautiful melodic folk metal from Russia, this three tracks album is really a beautiful masterpiece. Filled with local colors, a powerful range of melodies underlies the convictions behind a poetic stream of straight harmonies and linear musical tonalities. 

The development and evolution of Russian folk metal is superbly represented on this album. With an epic vigor that propels the melodies to go forward, beyond the elements of its masterful expansive notes, I swear to return here is a very poetic, lucid and vivid album, fulfilled by a spirit of greatness, embellished by an ancestral beauty, hidden in the face of a soul that inspires you to travel distantly, in places conceived by sensible melodies, forgotten at the pace of your own destiny. 

With a transcendental and peaceful vibe, that relinquishes a very subtle desire for freedom within one’s soul, I swear to return here, by Drevorod, is an outstanding storm of sensitivity: you feel yourself lost in the immensity of an infinite snow forest, where everything that you feel was once hidden at the depths of your spirit. With a vast degree of inspiration, the beautiful and inspiring melodies of this album will make you feel ecstatic from the beginning, until the very end. Although you have to be an intense enthusiast of melodic folk metal to appreciate this album, it really deserves a great deal of recognition. With fast and intense rhythms, and furious guitars fiercely dictating the pace of the music, the three songs presented on this album are poetic odes to infinity, inclusive of a feeling that encapsulates the whole universe within the convictions of your heart. 

A powerful and greatly arranged work, I swear to return here is a great exemplar of the genre. With abundant strength, a poetic rhetoric, an intense majesty and a transcendental tranquility, this album has a genuine philosophy underlined at the invisible distinctions of the beautiful notes it delivers to the listener, in each and every minute of its songs. While it does teaches you some lessons on humanity, inserted at the core of a dramatic soundscape, this amazing record really has everything a good folk melodic metal album needs: power, vigor, poetry, truth, density and intensity. And all these elements are beautifully aligned together, to score three of the best songs of the genre that will ever going to listen in your life. And while listening to it, be sure that Drevorod., as a band, is a promise delivered and fulfilled.       


​Wagner

folk metal / black metal

From Carpathian Land is the third album by Ukrainian Pagan Black Metal band Paganland, released on November 4 by Svarga Music.

A thoroughly powerful and emblematic rhapsodic pagan BM deeply rooted in local culture, Paganland displays on From Carpathian Land a more organic and esoteric black metal, centered on a reflexive and poetic philosophy of immaterial essence, everlasting wisdom and silent harmony, going far beyond the usual steps of genre. With some aggressive sound, of course, they manage to standardize a ritualistic sonorous strength, filled with an impetuous vigor and a truthful resonance, which certainly makes this album a great milestone of the genre. With a marvelous set of rapid rhythms, nonetheless, Paganland manages to sound original and authorial, looking way more as a teacher of the genre, than just a hostile student. 

With some exceedingly symphonic influences, and a joyful abysmal sound, that resembles a philosophy class, filled with wisdom and lucidity, nothing can be said of From Carpathian Land, besides the fact that it is, in fact, a great and marvelous masterpiece: a new approach to black metal, and a new form of artistic genre understanding and evolution, regarding extreme blackened pagan metal, as a whole. What a marvelous and grandiloquent album: already captures the listener in the first track – a simple but beautiful intro, that mesmerizes the listener, in a very beautiful paradoxical gloomy melody, that eternalizes winter in the dubious spheres of the mortifying anxieties of your soul. 

With a style of their own, developed in a very different category of black metal, Paganland really does justice – besides introducing real significance – to what the term “pagan” really means in metal. And with a furious, but very artistic sound, filled with the most profound components of their own culture and heritage, From Carpathian Land begins a new chapter in the history of extreme metal. Consolidating an interesting style that doesn’t neglect the melodies over the rhythm – and yet, had managed to do a very powerful and heavy album – Paganland has everything to become one of the greatest acts in the history of the underground in the future, if they manage to do more fantastic albums like this one, with such a groundbreaking degree of artistic excellence (and I know they will). 

Despite being very brief – having only seven tracks – From Carpathian Land has everything an excellent extreme pagan metal album is entitled to, to please its audience. An uncommon, major, unique, exceedingly refined and majestic record, no doubt about that!    


​Wagner

folk metal

Romuvos is a one man folk metal project of Lithuanian musician Velnias, whose most recent work, a marvelous full length titled Infront of Destiny, is a great masterpiece of the genre, that tries to redeem and to rescue the formidable roots, the pure milestones and the cultural essence of his homeland, in an astoundingly monumental metal scenario, with the solemn and sincere purpose of achieving and conquering – besides fully understanding – the native heritage of a groundbreaking pattern of cultural purity, that reassures the excellence of a fundamental identity, that could never go lost in the fields of his soul. In a constant effort to raise, to preserve, and to disseminate the integrity, the heart and the essence that was built in the iron sun of the aging dawn on the land of his forefathers, Romuvos brings back with the sonorous strength of all his virtuosity the monumental and compounding philosophy that was built on the verge of epic battles centuries ago.    

With eleven beautiful tracks, being them Infront of Destiny We Shall Face Our Death,
We Travel South, Winds Blow Over Seas, Our Spirits Pass Through the Underworld, Around the Bonfire Our Souls Will Unite, While The Cliffs Stand Tall in the Horizon,
The Return Back Home, For as Long as Enemies Lay in Defeat, Golden Coasts Filled with Amber Stones, Let Thy Gods Sing Your Glory Hymn and Outro, Infront of Destiny is a remarkable album, filled with local colors, that redeems and redefines the folk metal genre, creating bonds and solidifying boundaries that breaks and links the outstanding fractures of a greatly envisioned shining ascendant wisdom, with ancestral solstice melodies, that reunites a timeless period of impulsive and formidable clarity, supported by a common mental constitution, where all souls were aligned together. With quite a simple proposal, that seems to elevate – and evaluate – the true essence of powerful cultural roots, to collectively glorify the wisdom of nature, to celebrate the infinity and the higher appeals of life, while singing in the mountain spheres of a permanent peace, in times where simplicity and energy where perfectly converging together, for the redemptive vastness working incessantly for the common good, Infront of Destiny is a remarkable milestone in the folk metal genre, exceedingly pure in the veracity of its timeless roots. 

With tempestuous inherently folk instruments, grasping melodies cutting winds by the power of a wisdom never caught, barbaric vocals of elusive unrestrictive domain, the magical guidance of philosophically guided descended thin layered guitars, occasional folkloric-minded rhythmic challenging marches, the cold rain of ancestral elemental days filled with warrior purposes and battles for survival of the fittest, Romuvos purely embodies the true spirit of the Baltic area, in an amazingly vivid, lucid, beautiful and at the same time ethereal, timeless and dream-like epic opera of metal voracious truth, where all souls who shares the same principles of ancestral pagan brotherhood, desire to preserve traditions and to revive the inner spirit of strength, power and gifted ascension, will inherently converge to a path of excellence, standing  between a shining perpetual family dream, and an infinite mysterious day inside themselves, that could never be lost anytime. 

Anyway, Infront of Destiny, although having a sound that seems a little uniform throughout the record, is a great example of folk metal, true to the fundamental principles of its epic essence. Exceedingly shining, amazingly lucid, and superbly convoluting the atmosphere of a battle terrain, while reverberating in the essence of our spirits visions of a distant past, through a magical voracious upheaval of death and defiance, this work certainly can be considered a great and amazing record. Although it does not essentially present anything new to an audience already deeply familiar to the genre, Infront of Destiny does shine over a new path of folk metal, being righteously melodic and originally fearlessly regional, keeping faithful to its roots all the elements that precisely keeps this album an intriguing exemplar of the genre. With soft and calm melodies, where philosophical constraints, pagan culture and communal spiritual chants prevails over aggressiveness and fury, Infront of Destiny is a work that you shouldn’t miss, if you really are into the folk metal genre. A masterpiece on its own rights – although, like I’ve said above, doesn’t show to its audience anything new – it really manages to be an album quite unique, full of beauty, poetry and ancestral considerations. While folk metal it is not one of my primary genres in any way, I found Infront of Destiny, by Romuvos, a remarkable work, to say the least. The music of Velnias will also probably awake your curiosity about Lithuanian culture, and the country’s current music scene, awakening your senses to the rich cultural inheritance of this small beautiful nation, upon which you probably doesn’t know anything at all. Regardless of what you know, or doesn’t know, Romuvos’ Infront of Destiny is quite a way to start!    


​Wagner

folk metal / pagan metal

Månegarm is a veteran Swedish metal band, active for more than twenty years now, that blends what appears to be folk, neoclassical, progressive and technical death metal elements into their soud, creating a vibrating, peculiarly unique and very distinctive sound, responsible for their large acclaim within the international metal community. With an astoundingly large fan base, and regarded today as one of the top metal acts in the Nordic countries, Månegarm, with their eponymous release, manages to engrave, for once and for all, their solid and vigorous relevance within the underground scene. With a very technical work, and a solid consistent soul forming the shape of their music, the respect, amazement and admiration for Månegarm will only stay strong, especially after your hear this album.  

With folk elements thinly detailed in a very skilled and technical proficiency that eludes harmonies in a very intricate layer of sounds, but nevertheless sounding fresh, clean and objectively fast, this record is really an impressive and daring milestone for the underground metal scenario. Daring, unbound and unrestrained, without any fears of innovation, and having unprecedented traces of peculiarities, Månegarm also introduces instruments and sounds that at first can appear “alien” to a metal background. Nonetheless, their perfect introduction of local folklore into heavier and sidelined harmonies sounds instinctively enthusiastic, furious and joyful, and engraves their distinctively Nordic identity. Powerful vocals and rhythmical guitar lines have also a notorious responsibility in building and holding the structure of the songs as well, giving the album it’s subjective, artistic and unusual primacy. Delicate and smooth melodies are incisively protuberating and distinctive as well, easily shaping and maintaining into the music an ambience of comradeship, optimism and sentimentality, that hails the monumental glory of epic battles that dwells within the shadows of its own derogatory disillusions.

Sometimes reminding a little their distant Finnish cousins – Amorphis –  Månegarm is skilled in aligning and combining the most heavier aspects of metal music with more detailed, soft and delicate melodies, creating a genre difficult to categorize, but creatively expansive, and awesomely fun to listen. Setting no limits for their capabilities, and picking up almost each and every element they find interesting for a song, Månegarm creates unusual tracks, and gives to their music well defined characteristics, that certainly could be regarded as folk metal, with daring experimental sound nuances and contrasts. 

With some power and symphonic metal elements – although introduced very subtlety in some of their songs –, Månegarm has given us an outstanding album, that deserves all the proper recognitions. Although sometimes you can get a little bored by their sometimes excessive insertions of local color into their music, it becomes impossible not to admire the album as a whole, in the end of it all. So much technical proficiency, aligned with a purely passionate and free enthusiasm, which transpires in each and every one of these tracks, makes you crave for more of this exciting masterpiece. Of course, being them metal veterans, as well as serious, talented and dedicated musicians, it is no surprise at all that, together, they’re able to create such a groundbreaking and original album. Profoundly coherent in their differentiated and resounding musical proposition, certainly Månegarm is a pride motive in their native Sweden, as well as for the international metal community. 

Certainly demanding a very skilled and intuitive talent to perfectly reconcile and arrange so many different elements into their music, Månegarm inserts poetic, melancholic, epic, melodic, harmonious and aggressive elements into their sound, creating defined moments of unbelievable beauty – in the soft as well as in the furious parts of their music – that enables them to maintain a distinctive, cohesive and solid identity, while sounding extremely eclectic at the same time.

With an outlook of unpredictable, but definitive glorious artistry, Månegarm achieves what most bands cannot achieve in a lifetime: being them, whatever and whenever they want. Doesn’t matter what they play, Månegarm will always sound as Månegarm, doesn’t matter the circumstances. Creating a distinctively Nordic, epic and folk style of metal, you can certainly hear the eponymous Månegarm album, without regret. You will certainly love it. It will surprise you minute after minute, song after song. This great warriors of metal deserve your attention, and you will get addicted to this album, as soon as you listen to it. It is an amazing musical journey: your musical boundaries will be astoundingly different, changing dramatically, as soon as you have listened to this beautiful, resounding and poetic masterpiece.    


​Wagner

folk metal / black metal

Mana Ewah is the most recent album by Bifröst, an Austrian Folk/ Pagan Black Metal band, that certainly deserves definitely its place in metal history. Besides Mana Ewah being probably the best pagan black Metal album that I have ever heard in my entire life, Bifröst really outstands itself by consolidating a purely genuine musical identity, having lyrics and singing entirely in German, which is certainly a magnificent and very defining feature, in a mostly anglophile scenario.

The first song, Himmelsfall, is the kind of track capable of immediately blew up your mind. A furious and energetic track, you will have the most wonderful rapture while listening to it. This album emanates wonderfully – and perfectly – all the astounding principles of pagan metal: the “magical” thing about Mana Ewah can be described as a powerful combination of a genuine rhythmical mathematic baseline with a true to the spirit ideological sonorous proficiency, which resulted in a strong, well designed and sincerely grounded collision of qualities, forged at the gates of perfection. I’m sincerely moved at how all the elements that built this amazing and superbly indescribable masterpiece are perfectly aligned together: guitar lines that holds the structural elements of the songs, perfectly mathematical melodies vibrating in an infallible pattern of bold, beautiful and wonderful harmonies, with an astounding degree of emotional soul into it, purely converging to path of magical folk elements, as well as powerful, rasping, and cutting vocals. Everything easily combined to form one of the most ambitious, significant, brilliant and complete albums in metal history. No, there is nothing on earth like Mana Ewah. It is a sensitive, pure, groundbreaking, innovative, strong and fundamental album. The most perfect definition of a pagan BM sonorous journey, from the four corners of the underground world.

The second song of the album, Verräters Geschick, explains perfectly the defintions I’ve described above. The exhilarating voice – that sometimes enters into a triumphal contrast to more guttural vocals – is backed by wrathful melodic guitar lines, that structures the whole song into a majestic beauty of undefined poetic lucidity. I wish I had never listened to this album: I will certainly get addicted to it, and it gets me frustrated because it is impossible to describe in words what these fantastic musicians have done. Perfect contrasts, perfectly aligned melodies, amazing convergence of rhythms, some rock’n’roll influenced harmonies, the most talented construction of a differentiated “pagan” sonorous element, the correct insertion of folk components into the right places, and songs completely sung in German, makes Mana Ewah the most refined, singular, absolute and definitive masterpiece of the genre, and certainly one of the metal milestones released on this century.  

Mana Ewah is certainly an album to hear, buy and believe. Magnificent, energetic, powerful, astounding, vibrating and exhilaratingly delightful, it is not just another album, but a very distinguishable, renowned, high and impeccable work of art. It sets up a new definition for metal, with its surprisingly astounding style of black metal, that blends folk, melodic, pagan and power metal components, masterly inserted into the melodies, which gives them a unique sonorous identity, without the possibility of ever being compared to anyone. Setting up a new and fresh level of creativity into metal, Bifröst proves for once and for all why they can, and should be seen as one of the top metal acts in their home country, as well as their undeniable relevance to the metal community worldwide. Mana Ewah is an album that will persist through the ages, and will become an underground favorite, and a metal classic. Such reverberating, passionate and professional level of competence can never pass unnoticed. This album is an astounding and compelling furious wrath, with an unbound and original artistic legacy.             

Certainly, undoubtedly, empirically one of the most magnificent albums that I have ever heard in my entire life, Mana Ewah is a vibrating, creative and unimaginable masterpiece. A unique album, with a strong and genuine proposition, held by an exceedingly unusual path of veracity, truth and authenticity, and a heartbreaking emotional level of bold originality, this album is a groundbreaking achievement not just for Bifröst, but for every one of us, metal fans. Amazingly remarkable, beautiful, emotional, poetic, true to the origins, and surpassing unthinkable degrees of originality, I can only say thank you, Bifröst, for this amazing, awesome, excellent and astounding masterpiece. It brought tears to my eyes, while listening to it. After all, what can I say…? A Pagan Black Metal album entirely in German it is certainly one of the most magnificent things that can happen on Earth!     



​Wagner

pagan metal / folk metal

After taking a few days off due to a festival, followed by the flu, we're ready to get back to our daily task of writing reviews. Today, I've chosen a folk, or pagan, metal album to start my writing session. If anything, it just might assassinate the last viruses or harmful bacteria still roaming inside my body. Flee, ye cursed bearers of abdominal cramps and diarrhea, flee from the crushing sounds of Drakwald.

Drakwald is a French band, but they might as well hail from Scandinavia. Since their inception around 2011, they have been heavily influenced by bands such as Children Of Bodom, Korpiklaani, Ensiferum, Moonsorrow and Amon Amarth, which seems perfectly represented in their music. The standard (death) metal line-up is enhanced by flutes and other ancient instruments, giving the whole that awesome pagan atmosphere.

I know that there are many bands out there who try to fit in with the pagan metal scene but only a few of them really succeed in creating something interesting. Most of those bands sound way too similar, pretty much becoming copycats. I guess it's the lack of decent songwriting capabilities, but you won't find that on 'Riven Earth'. These songs are solid, varied, full of power and energy and for some reason, they fly by like an ancient freight train.

I'm not going into a song-by-song description, since every song is pretty much made up from the same elements and contains a similar amount of variation. Everything alternates, almost constantly. Voices ranges from blackened screams over death growls to heroic chanting. The rest of the music ranges from joyful folky passages to fierce acts of metal, exactly what a pagan metal fan actually needs.

My favorite songs are 'Erase By Fire', 'Murdering The Darkness' and 'Never Rising Sun', but I would recommend listening to the entire album, at least a few times. I really like the narrative and scenical feel of this full-length. I like how it's sometimes hard to tell when one song is done and another one begins. That's one of the qualities of a good album, the feeling of a concept. So check it out and join me in a massive ancient headbanging session...


​Serge

black metal / folk metal

The pagans are loose.  Hordes of heathens are storming the fields and roaming the forests, assaulting everything that is wicked and unholy in their eyes.  Their long hair creates waves under which their swords and spears prepare to penetrate the flesh of their enemies. The battle will be fierce and it will be brutal but in the end, the pagans will be victorious.  In the end, the heathens will celebrate, banging their heads to Hordak.

Spanish pagan metal horde Hordak have been around for awhile.  'Padre' is already their fourth album.  It's a very ambitious one too, pulling out all the stops to make this an epic piece of work. That's not only noticeable in the vast amount of instruments used but also in the guest appearances from members of Folkearth, Crystal Moors and Forefather.  However, in all it's ambition, this still is a nostalgic trip into the history of this sub-genre.

Halfway through opener 'Ekleipsis – Devourer Of Gods', I'm immersed in nostalgia, raising my fist to the sheer grandeur that comes out of this track.  I think about Primordial. I think about Moonspell and I think about Amorphis in their 'Tales' era.  Above all that, I think 'fuck yeah'.  It has been awhile since I heard something like this and I'm immediately sold.  I don't think Hordak could have written a better opening track for this album.

From there, the album continues on this gloomy and mysterious path, including flutes and violin to enhance the pagan atmosphere.  Yet, with these grinding guitars and resolute drums, there is plenty of headbanging goodness to be found too.  You try to sit still while listening to 'Soaring' or 'Thrive'. If you succeed, you are not a pagan metal fan, period.  Besides, there is some damn good guitar play to be found here too, including some awesome solos.

What this genre lacks in complexity, it makes up for in sheer grandeur and an atmosphere of victory and heroism. Hordak know that, and take that atmosphere to epic levels.  Even when the intensity goes down, as on the beautiful piece 'Sol', these guys make the absolute best of it.  This track is worthy of mentioning Opeth, be it in an acoustic setting.  This surely is one of my favorites on this already epic album.

'A Leader In Times Of War' is another one of my favorites and probably one of the most immersive on this album.  It's also the one that reminds me the most of traditional Scandinavian black metal for some reason. While the album closes with the massive title track 'Padre', I'd like to end this review by recommending this album to all pagan metal fans out there. This is pure nostalgia for some but it is definitely good enough tho stand its ground in today's blackened scene.


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pagan / folk / black metal

Some label owners are way too nice people.  They have their own music project but tend to promote other bands more.  I have no idea why they do that but it seems a habit of some people. Perhaps, they are a bit uncertain about their own abilities, certainly when they hear the masterpieces some other bands on their label produce.  Because of that, some serious gems are left being underrated and unknown, which really is a shame.

Briargh is the blackened pagan folk metal act by Morbid Shrine's owner Dux Briargh.  Influenced by acts like Burzum and Drudkh he started working on this project years ago.  To me, it sounds like a very old school black metal album with several folk influences thrown in, which obviously is a good idea. It's been awhile since I heard something like this and I have to say, I'm glad this album reached me.

What I like most about this album, is the combination of bleak black metal and the warm sound of the instruments.  It's an odd contradiction but one that works very well.  This isn't a mere blast-beats driven piece of black metal but a melodic and mysterious sounding version of the genre, highlighting in songs like 'El Llanto del Bosque' and 'Dubos Etenos'. Often I'm reminded of acts like Bergthron, Windir or Falkenbach.

I really think it would be a shame if this album wouldn't get much attention.  It is a very strong example of a strange and underrated subgenre.  So yes, I would like to recommend it to all the black metalheads out there, certainly the ones who love a bit of paganism and melody in their music.  Nice work...


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atmospheric black metal

Over the past few years, I spent many evenings watching documentaries about European history.  I've always been fascinated by the Old Continent's tribes, the way they lived and their beliefs.  Even in school I carefully followed the lectures about the Celts, the Franks, the German tribes.  When I eventually became a metal fan, I got fascinated by acts like Primordial, Negură Bunget and Finntroll, bands who dig deep into their ancient heritage.

Ukrainian one-man project Zgard also honors his heritage through atmospheric and so called 'pagan' black metal.  'Totem' is dedicated to the Veles, the old Slavonic god of sorcerers., which of course shrouds this entire album in mystery and evokes visions of ancient rituals and traditions.  This is already Zgard's fifth album but for some reason I haven't heard about this project before.  Yet, after listening to this piece of work, I will probably check out his other albums too.

The album opens with a dark intro, immediately setting the right atmosphere.  The track prepares the listener for what's coming and when 'Land Of Legends' begins, it's absolutely amazing.  This, mostly, mid-tempo track is a very strong piece of black metal, one that definitely grabs your attention.  At this moment the folk elements aren't clearly present yet, but that too will change soon. By the time the track 'Totem' is almost over, I've become a fan of this act.

Besides the traditional black metal instrumentation and the obvious eerie screams, Zgard uses flutes, plucked guitars and clean, almost mantra-like vocals.  It seems like all of that is a lot of work for one person, certainly if that artist wants to convince the listener.  With this kind of music that's not an easy task.  There are about ten instruments to be played, choirs to be compiled and you have to get the atmosphere right.

Yet, Zgard succeeded in coming up with something inspiring.  'Totem' is a dark but fascinating album, brilliantly envisioning the foggy atmosphere of the ancient Carpathians and their inhabitants.  With this, Zgard clearly establishes himself as a firm and unique entity in the world of atmospheric pagan metal acts.  Check it out, this genre rarely gets as good as on this masterpiece.


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folk metal

Time to enter the realm of the Vikings again.  I have to admit, it's been awhile since I listened to folk, or pagan, metal.  Somehow I lost interest in the genre some years ago, but thanks to this website I get a decent idea of where the style is going.  Seemingly, it hasn't evolved that much, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Some traditions are worth honoring and good folk metal certainly is one of them.

Wolfhorde is a band from Keuruu, Finland, founded somewhere in 2000.  If I understand the biography correctly, by the time the band began, they didn't really know that there was such a thing as folk metal.  They just played traditional folk before one of the members started writing metal compositions.  Gradually however, the band became a respected value in the scene, with good reason too.

After a short, traditional intro, 'Fimbulvetr' comes up with the uptempo drums, the distorted riffs and the folky melodies.  In that aspect, Wolfhorde can easily be placed on any shelve where Korpiklaani, Ensiferum, Finntroll and company are present.  What sets Wolfhorde apart, are the vocals.  While most bands nudge towards blackened screams, Wolfhorde mostly comes up with deep growls, showing a death metal background and reminding me a bit of Crematory.

Of course, it wouldn't be folk metal without clean chants and acoustic elements too, and, in my humble opinion, that's where Wolfhorde's power lies.  It's these passages that truly convince me, even more than the speedy metal parts.   Here, the band shows where they come from. They show that Viking folk is in their veins and in their heritage.  They also make it sound so easy, which must be frustrating for bands that try so hard to copy the style.

My favorite track is 'Death Long-Due', a midtempo folkrocker that feels festive and harsh at the same time.  Of course, this wouldn't be folk metal without regular changes in tempo and instrumentation.  'Lycomania', probably the most typical folk metal track, is my second favorite.  It drives on fierce thrash metal riffage and a speedy tempo.  No doubt that this track will generate moshpits wherever it's played.

In all, I think every folk metal fan should check this out.  Wolfhorde fits perfectly in that genre but managed to maintain their own sound.  With 'Towards The Gates Of North' is a very strong album that should get some heads banging in their direction.  These Fins certainly deserve it.  Keep your eyes open for these guys because they will be conquering festival stages allover Europe in the sweet summer of 2016...


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black metal / folk

By the end of the nineties and in the early years of this century, I was fascinated with the folk inspired black metal trend.  Like several other genres, I completely lost track once I was done with the entire metal genre.  Several major conflicts and problems made me turn my back to this kind of music for several years.  Merchants Of Air turned that around again, and now that the bad memories have become mere footnotes, I can fully enjoy extreme music again.

Selvans is an Italian blackened folk band, which in a way explains pretty much everything there is to this full-length album. This work, their second release after an ep in 2014, shows a well attuned band which perfectly combines folk music and black metal and present it with a lot of symphonic and bombastic elements.  In that aspect, 'Lupercalia' is an overwhelming experience, and I really dig overwhelming experiences.

The songs on this album are intense hymns, loaded with keyboards and traditional folk instruments, besides the equally traditional guitars, drums and screams of course.  They remind me most of the symphonic black metal of the nineties, something between In The Woods, Falkenback and Summoning perhaps.  Yet, if you're looking for the jolly alcohol loaded folk black metal of Finntroll and company, thing again.  This stuff is grim, obscure and haunting.

Which in my opinion means it's awe-inspiring and it reeks of ancient tribes, cults and pagan religions.  Mystery, spirituality and atmosphere are massively important factors in Selvans' music as they delve deeply into the ancient rituals of old Italic tribes.  These factors enhance the complex nature of the songs with a lot of immersive instrumental passages which are simply to awesome to ignore.

That being said, even though the band is clearly rooted in the symphonic black metal craze of the nineties, they perfectly fit in with today's post-black scene, certainly as far as atmosphere and epicness are concerned.  The folk passages will make Selvans one of the most original bands on the bill, and gain them a lot of respect I think.  I definitely want to experience this live, so I hope these guys get their gear packed up and tour Europe soon.


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pagan metal

I started today's writing session with some folk metal and it felt quite good.  So I decided to check my downloads folder for another slab of heavy paganism and suddenly faced the hard task to describe this new album by American one-man act When Bitter Spring Sleeps.  Hard because I had to decide upon a certain style of music, which really is tough here.  There's just too much going on to make a selection.

According to the biography, this act started out with acoustic guitars and recorded in the woods. Nature is indeed a big influence on When Bitter Spring Sleeps, most notably the mythical lives of wolves.    This concept album follows his previous work, about a coven of wolves.  That obviously reminds me of many neo-folk acts but this album is far from neo-folk, although I do recognize some elements.

Perhaps the music could best be described as traditional black metal with clean, power metal related vocals, driving on thrash riffs and repetitive drums.  The combination of all these elements feels quite strange at first.  In fact, I had some serious doubts about this album when I first listened to opener 'Witch Of November' but gradually the album started growing and gaining my interest, just like Primordial suddenly became one of my favorites.

So yes, there's the primitive black metal of bands like Marduk, the cold, heathen atmosphere of Vinterriket and the baritone vocals which remind me of Moonspell and at times even of Type O Negative.  Furthermore, there's a splendid black ambient track here too, named 'Lunar Elegy'. The whole takes some getting used to but once you're into this, you start realizing that songs like 'Burning Your Eden' and title track 'Spirit In Flames' are simply great songs.


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black metal / viking metal

It's been a while since I listened to some decent folk/pagan/viking metal.  Usually when I read those tags I think of bands like Amon Amarth and I don't really like them.  Don't ask me why. Luckily for me, Forefather is not an Amon Amarth clone although there are some clear viking metal influences present.  Knowing a little something about the history of their homeland, England, that shouldn't be much of a surprise.

In fact, what this album reminds me most of, is Belgian black metal horde Ancient Rites, mainly during their folk-era.  Combining black metal with heroic and epic passages; Forefather came up with something highly versatile and powerful.  Besides the typical black metal elements, such as screams, fierce guitars and blast beats, there is plenty of room of clean vocals, melodic passages and keyboards.  

For some reason, this band manages to surprise the listener several times.  While opener 'The Fighting Man' is an immediate blast of black metal, the folk influences start showing up soon, highlighting in the marching anthem 'The Call To Arms'.  This is quite an odd piece of music, one that will probably cause a drinking frenzy at festivals.  'For These Shores' might easily become a fan favorite on those festivals too by the way.

The only comment I can give is that perhaps the clean passages on this album are a bit too nice and friendly.  The music rocks but the vocals are a bit goody-goody.  With a bit more power on the voice, 'Out Of Darkness' could be a massive metal track and possibly a highlight in this genre. Although, I must say, the music is quite immersive and horned fist-raising.  So are most of the songs, which definitely makes this a welcome addition to any folk metal collection. So yes, if you're a fan of this kind of music, you should check this out...


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pagan metal / dark folk

​Every once in a while I encounter an album that completely revives my interest in a certain genre.  As some readers might know, I've been away from the metal scene for nearly a decade.  Before I left the scene, due to reasons I will not bore you with, I was a fan of pagan metal bands such as Finntroll, Ensiferum and Runic.  In my absence, I often saw the name Korpiklaani on flyers but I never gave it a lot of attention.  The whole genre seemed quite one sided at that time, another genre without a lot of inspiration.

But, like you guessed it, recently I received an album that is just too good to ignore.  For the record, yes I'm back in the metal business and I have been since the inception of Merchants Of Air.  Still, folk or pagan metal is something we don't get often here.  That's probably why I've been so curious about this album.  I wondered: did the genre evolve? Is there something new and refreshing to be found in pagan metal?  The answer, oh hell yeah.

Thy Worshiper is not a new band.  They have been around since 1993 and witnessed a rebirth in 2005.  This Polish six-piece recorded several albums already and there's no intention to stop.  In fact, they're already planning the next one, to be released next year or so.  However, let's focus on their current album.  It takes pagan metal as a basis, add a healthy dose of eastern European folk to it and comes out with something unique, something that resembles dark folk above metal.

The album isn't loaded with guitars, although there's plenty of headbanging sessions possible.  The drums don't rock like the previously mentioned bands do but they add a sense of ritual percussion to the whole.  Opener 'Brzask' might be one of the most 'metal' songs, sounding like a blend of Moonspell and Rotting Christ but again dwelling in a mysterious atmosphere, thanks to the ethnic instruments.  Vocals range from ritual chants to growls and angelic female vocals.  Besides, there's a stunning danceable folk passage in this piece that is so beautiful.

Thy Worshiper clearly have their own style, influenced by black metal and seemingly also by those spooky folk acts like Of The Wand And The Moon, Elend or Sol Invictus.  I admit, Thy Worshiper is a lot heavier than those bands but they do have a lot in common, including atmosphere and vocal arrangements.  Furthermore, they seem to have a nag for complete freedom in music.  In 'Halny' I can even hear some jazz influences.  The Shining (blackjazz) could have made this song in a dark mood (but certainly not as good as Thy Worshiper do).

Is it ok to add 'post' to the description of this music? Well, in a certain way it might be.  There are some drones and some dark, hypnotic passages.  'Ozyny', for instance is a diabolical chant, dark, eerie and driving on didgeridoo and a percussion like a heartbeat. So let's call this post-folk, especially when the drony bass and guitars come in.  Yet, there's is little to no metal to be found here, which isn't a problem by the way.  I love this song.

And I also love the other songs, 'Wietlica' is a psychedelic version of a Lacuna Coil song (again, only better), 'Wsrod Cieni i Mgiel' shows the blackened side of the band again and closer 'Ozimina' is a scary piece of music, driving on uptempo percussion and a dark, gothic atmosphere.  All of these songs seem to have a different sound, although they fit perfectly together.  So what else could I do then recommend this song to everyone who's into dark music.  As far as folk, or pagan, metal is concerned, this is now on the top of my list.


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blackened industrial comedy folk metal / orc rock

Allover the course of history, there have been musical acts that are a bit different, comical even.  Kompressor and Rummelsnuff turn a smile on any industrial fan's face and Wood Of Trees or even Vegan Black Metal Chef does exactly the same in the world of cold blackened bitterness from the blasphemous foggy soils of the north.  Or did you think Weird Al Yankovic was the only 'funny' musician?

ORCumentary reminds me a lot of all of these acts while also having a spin at folk and pagan metal.  In a highly enjoyable fashion this one-man project blends industrial electronics with brutal metal, all with a tremendous hatred toward goblins, dwarves, elves and other profiteers who refuse to adept to modern day society and just live off our work while also pushing their religious beliefs on us.  

(note: any similarities with present day socio-economic and politic issues are purely coincidental and do in no way reflect the opinion of the writer of this review).

The result is an over-the-top album, musically reminding me of acts like Rammstein, Die Krupps, Samael, Finntroll, Korpiklaani and Immortal.  The guitars and drums/programming have a very modern edge but the keyboards sounds as if they come right of an eighties pop song or, in some case, a nineties eurodance monstrosity.  However, believe me, here it fits perfectly with the sillyness of the whole. 

Vocals range from grunts and blackened screams to faked-femaled vocals which are hilariously annoying.  Luckily the grunts make up the most part of the whole, so it remains enjoyable.  Besides, there are actually some good songs on this album.  On stage, I can easily imagine songs like 'You Must Procreate!' or 'Into Their Cavernous Hole We Plunge' evoking a dance-banging party.  Yes, dance-banging exists, just pay attention at a Pain or Rammstein concert and you'll know what I mean.

I can't find a lot of information about this act (mainly because somehow I lost the accompaning e-mail somewhere) but I know this one-man project does this thing live.  So please, bookers from Europe (and especially Belgium because I'm very selfish sometimes), get this act on the road in 'ye olde continent' and let's destroy some pesky little miscreations on the way...


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