An Norvys – ‘One and All’ (EP 2011)
Rating: 8/10
Release: 18 November 2011
Label: Independent
An Norvys recorded an EP in 2011 entitled One and All. And when you record a demo like this I should call it an EP too. What a nice album by this French six-piece! With nice clear female vocals and violin in the style of bands like fenrir. A solid background is created by drums, bass and guitars and the violin gives it all this folk touch.
It’s always tricky for starting bands to create track which are too long, but not with An Norvys, the first track Morveren is almost six minutes long, but it can hold your attention the whole time. This tale about the mermaid Morveren is simply very nice.
There’s more water to come in The Lost Land of Lyonesse, which is a story about a storm in 1099 when the whole land of Lyonesse was swallowed by the water. Again we get nice violin which creates the atmosphere of the song. This almost classical style of violin-playing matches perfectly with the clean vocals.
Jack the Giant Killer, starts with a much more folky melody by the violin. Again a nice tale, the band has very nice lyrics, telling beautiful old stories.
Wrath is a bit more metal then the rest and they show they can also walk this road. The lyrics are nice, the music is solid as always and the violin and vocals are telling us another great story of the sea and it’s devilish creatures.
What a great début by An Norvys this EP One and All. Very nice, I like to hear some more of them, that’s for sure!
Tracklist
- Morveren 05:55
- The Lost Land of Lyonesse 06:10
- Jack the Giant Killer 04:02
- Wrath 04:01