Blodiga Skald – ‘The Undrunken Curse’ (2020)
Rating: 9.6/10
Release: 24 April 2020
Label: SoundAge Productions
The six orks from Rome are back with their second longplayer “The Undrunken Curse” and set sail to conquer the folk metal world. So lets accompany them throught their journey to unleash their curse, that they can not drink anymore, which is basically one of the basic needs of all orks. We follow them through the home of the dwarfs, swamps, the lands of the elves and ancient worlds. There is no doubt that Blodiga Skald build a great realm around their story and their concept is working out perfectly. But a good concept is not everything and therefore I am coming now to the real highlight of this record and this is definitley the great musical arrangements which satisfy every single need of a folk metal heart. The ork Tuyla on the accordion and keyboard and Yindi on the violin are ensuring with their instruments the right folky mood on this release. The other orks Vargan, Gash,Rükreb, Axuruk are doing as well a perfect job on the metal side. Beside the great combination of the orkish folk and metal the keyboard is giving the songs an symphonic and orchestralic accompaniment which adapts to every topic of each song. In respect of the vocals Axuruks is inspiring us with his harsh ork growling vocals on the mayority of the tracks, but Blodiga Skald is also not afraid showing us with the song “Spirits of Water” another side of the band presenting us a nice ballad with clean female vocals by Yindi. For me it really seems that every single song on this release is made with the full dedication of the band and with these great musical arrangements the story is becoming alive. A very good example is the song “To the East of Sorrow Town (Circus of Pigsley)” where you really feel that you are in the middle of a circus and the band experiment with a lot of different musical elements. Another indication of the big success of Blodiga Sklad is that they found nobody less then the Celtic Folk Metal Legends of Cruachan as feature guests on their track “Yo-Oh the Sail is Low”. For me personally the record is ending with the song “Never leave a friend behind”, if it was really necessary to add a Techno Blodiga song as bonus track everybody must decide for himself, I already made my decision and do not count it as offical track of the album 🙂 Already in 2018 Blodiga Skald was touring with their album “Ruhn” through Europe having gigs outside of Italy in example in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Denmark, Switzerland France or Germany. Sadly for 2020 due the COVID-19 situation there is currently only one gig confirmed at the Rock Metal Nation Festival in Romania. Hopefully there are more gigs to come when the current situation is calming down, as this release should actually be celebrated with great live shows, as it is for sure a great milestone in the young band history of Blodiga Skald!
Tracklist
- The Curse 04:37
- Yargak 04:52
- Sbabobo 03:30
- Estelain 04:34
- Spirits of Water 04:27
- The Sacrifice 03:38
- Tourdion 01:40
- To the East of Sorrow Town (Circus of Pigsley) 06:22
- Fugue 01:05
- Yo-Oh the Sail Is Low 04:30
- Never Leave a Friend Behind 04:51
- TechnoBlodiga! 05:12