Folk

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    Dornenreich – Flammentriebe (2011)

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    After gaining widespread popularity with their “Bitter ist's dem Tod zu dienen” album, one of the first ones to introduce Folkish elements with Black Metal back in 1999, the band has been constantly experimenting and releasing more and more interesting album every time. While plenty of people never understand the path of a band like this, we have loved almost every single album this band has put out.

    On “Flammentriebe”, the band returns to some of their most brutal roots and delivers one hell of an album.  Featuring 8 tracks of atmospheric neo-folk/classical metal with Black Metal attacks, Dornenreich makes it very hard for us to find a band that has done it before as graciously as them in this release. Each track is beautifully adorned with the amazing violin skills of Thomas Riesner and with Moritz Neuner back on drums, the sonic aggression never stops.

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    Ironwood - Storm Over Sea (2010)

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    With a very confusing approach to music, today we have Ironwood, a band that seems to suffer from multiple personality disorder and plays a very wide variety of music genres in a very disconnected way. However, at some moments the band reminds us of Borknagar and such bands that mix and match genres in very crafty ways.

    Hailing from Australia, “Storm Over Sea” is Ironwood’s second full-length release and shows the band trying to find their own sound, or just playing a bunch of random things together and hoping for the best. Starting off with “When it’s all Over” a very Folk/Progressive piece, the band will surely grab your attention, but will confuse you immediately after with “Hail Sign” a very ‘random’ song in our opinion.

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    Fejd – Eifur (2010)

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    The Rimmerfors brothers are back and so is their very elaborate and catchy brand of Swedish Folk music with some hints of Metal influences. Completing the band’s line-up we have three fifths of Pathos / Nostradameus bringing the Metal side of things with solid drumming, a nice bass guitar line, and keyboards.

    Being the band’s sophomore release (and second in a two year period), “Eifur” is a very diverse album that will grab the attention of any Folk music fan due to it’s brilliant instrumentation and catchy melodies. Again all the lyrics are in Swedish so most of us will be deprived of actually knowing what the songs are about, but the music alone is enough to hook us into this release.

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    Various Artists – Whom the Moon a Nightsong Sings (2010)

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    Prophecy Productions has always been a label associated with top acts in the Neo-Folk / Neo-Classical genres, and with “Whom the Moon a Nightsong Sings”, the label puts together a very comprehensive package of top bands of the genre in the shape of a two CD/LP compilation of exclusive and rare tracks. While some people might call it a money-grabbing attempt from the label, we have to recognize that every single track in this release is of the outmost quality and creates a very cohesive atmosphere around it.

    Featuring exclusive songs from bands like Empyrium, Nest, Nebelung, Tenhi, October Falls, Les Discrets, and Dornenreich among others will surely make fans of the bands and the genres immediately acquire this release as a essential addition to their collection. Other might be enticed by ‘rare’ tracks such as “Synen” from Ulver, and “Apres l'Ombre” by Les Discrets. But the most important thing here is the chance of getting a wide variety of bands together in a double release that will serve as a perfect starting point for people looking into the genres.

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    Orphaned Land - The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR (2010)

    Orphaned Land has the very daunting task of creating an even better release than “Mabool”, and they have somewhat succeeded in this almost impossible task. The band has refined their music greatly, and while this release is very good, they are miles away from the complexity and intricacy that “Mabool” offered us.

    “The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR” is a great release and it brings the Middle Eastern Folk influences that the band has showed in the past to be the main focus of this release. I love when bands use different elements in their music as a complement, not as a main gimmick in order to create shock value.

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    Kraftheim - Midgards Zorn (2009)

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    "Midgards Zorn" found it's way from Germany to our lair last week and as soon as we popped the CD in we got hooked into it. This band plays a very interesting mix of Viking Metal and Rock with some influences of Punk (like Glittertind).

    Kraftheim's album features 11 songs all sang in German which gives this album that German Rock dimension as well, making the band extremely versatile when it comes to combining genres allowing them to have a fresh sound, something that is hard to come by in the last few years.

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    Corde Oblique – The Stones Of Naples (2009)

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    Corde Oblique is an Italian band that is the brainchild of Riccardo Prencipe who composes all the music, but in the recording of this album used the help of an impressive list of musicians (for more go to their site),  and when performing live he is helped by Claudia Sorvillo (vocals), Edo Notarloberti (violin), Alessio Sica (drums) and Umberto Lepore (bass) who also contributed in the album.

    The band plays acoustic music that is of the highest level of quality and beauty. I listen to and appreciate all kinds of music regardless if they are metal or not, and acoustic music is one of my favorites.  I really like bands like Antimatter, Brillig and Ashram just to name a few, and Corde Oblique is in the same alley.

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    Fejd – Storm (2009)

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    Fejd provides us with a very solid debut album. This Swedish band plays folk music, with almost no elements of metal, so don’t expect distorted guitars or anything like that. The most ‘metal’ aspect of the band is probably the drumming. The bands music incorporates a wide variety of medieval instruments and they all blend to perfection, creating an album very rich in different sounds.

    While I’m no expert in folk music, I can appreciate a good album when I hear one. You can clearly listen to the Hurdy-gurdie, bag pipes, and violin among several other instruments. The fusion of instruments is done to perfection creating very cohesive folk melodies that will have all the fan of medieval music dancing and chanting along the vocals.

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    Stille Volk - Nueit De Sabbat (2009)

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    I've been listening to Stille Volk since the 1997, and they have most of the time releases good albums (except [Ex-uvies]). They are very consistent with their Medieval Folk style, and they don’t have any traces of Metal anymore, but still makes for a nice and different thing to listen.

    This two man band provides a great variety of wind and string instruments that are perfectly complemented with Patrick's vocals and several bagpipes. All songs are very consistent of the style of Stille Volk and will surely please all their fans. All instruments from what I can tell are very well played and they mix together perfectly.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Blackguard – Profugus Mortis (2009)

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    The Canadians of Blackguard used to be called Profugus Mortis until they won a Nuclear Blast contest on myspace and got a record deal with them. I must say that I’m impressed with this band evolution from a symphonic black metal to a more Folk/Black metal band.  While they still maintain they black metal vocals, the music has been greatly revamped with folk influences giving the band a more dynamic sound and removing them from the ‘symphonic black metal’ clone band category.

    The only thing I’m disappointed they removed was the violin that separated them from other symphonic black metal bands. Other that this all their bombastic keyboards layered on top of excellent drum and guitar tracks gives this band an edge over any band from North America that plays this genre, and puts them in a competitive level against European bands that are masters of the trade.

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