“Come, weary wanderer, join us around the fire here in the Folk Metal Corner of AMG. Look upon Resilience by Wandering Oak; does it not look at home here? Such indicators as the band’s name and logo, Resilience’s album art, and the big “folk metal” tag attached to the promo could only suggest the folksiest of metal. But wait, put down those lutes, I say, before you stumble into Wandering Oak’s trap!” Trapped and folked.
“I’ve always been supportive of bands branching out a little bit from their comfort zones to stretch their limbs, check out new haunts, or just freshen up their catalog a tad. Sometimes, some peanut butter needs to be added to your chocolate to make things lively and exciting. So when Swedish doom metal sextet Dun Ringill, a band I’ll admit to never having heard before, decided to add some progressive elements to their particular brand of folk doom, well… I was intrigued.” Dun and done.
“Theigns & Thralls—incidentally, very much how AMG Industries’ editors regard their relationship with the rest of the writing staff—is the brainchild of Skyclad vocalist Kevin Ridley. Formed originally as an outlet for some of Ridley’s back catalog and other material, it quickly mutated into something much more as the pandemic put an end to Skyclad’s touring plans. Seemingly formed of five principal members, Theigns & Thralls’ eponymous debut features contributions from some twenty-five musicians.” Many fingers, small pie.
“Bands who churn up a variety of styles within their sound present some challenges to music consumers and the journalists who cover them. On the one hand they provide a host of talking points in a single review, while on the other they make it difficult to categorize and pigeonhole. And there is nothing wrong with that, per se. One glance at where heavy metal music has drifted from its 1970s roots is all it takes to affirm that these mash-ups of styles can and often do enrich the genre.” Genre pile-up ahead.
“I wanted to get this review up much sooner but life happened, and though it’s several weeks tardy, Beyond the Veil, Dark Forest’s fourth album, definitely deserves a spotlight shone upon it. All the more so considering we whiffed on reviewing their excellent 2014 release, The Awakening. These English chaps play folksy power metal with a butt-ton ton of traditional and NWoBHM influences, often sounding like a fusion of Iron Maiden, Kamelot and Skyclad.” Go get Ent!
So, like them or not, Cruachan has been around since the early 1990s doing their Celtic folk metal bit with varying success. Their most widely well-regarded record is the album Folk-Lore from 2002, but there was at least a little love for the band’s blending of Gaelic folk music and metal. For me, the band has always had an air of ‘amateur’ about them. While bands like Primordial and Skyclad produced unique music at a high level, there’s always been a seed of a good idea with Cruachan, but an execution problem. So, how does Blood on the Black Robe live up to the legacy of the band?
