Rating: 9/10
Release: October 2007
Label: Sandman Productions

Luxemburg is not the first country that appears to Celtic/folk metallers’ eyes and Clanrock is indeed the only folk metal name you can find from this country. Despite this lack this band has brought us such a good album that cannot be overlooked as it is instead.

A closer look will reveal that this band has been on the local folk scene for more than 20 years. They were previously known as Everyday Zulu when they used to play rock/blues. Later they were asked to change their name to clanrock and then started playing metal and released 2 albums and an EP in 2014.

One thing that appears immediately about Flight of the Phoenix is its length. 2004’s Out of Ashes was already very long (going even further than one hour) and this one’s even reaching 71 minutes to the player. But popping a 10 minute long silence into the last track the album can still fill a full hour of your time with songs which isn’t a negative aspect at all though. The album in fact manages to flow without problems, the songs are all varied from each other and you will see your ears appreciating both softer and stronger moments in the album. The songs are filled with traditional bagpipes and keyboard which are left the right spot for the folk parts into a field of guitars and heavy voices.

Another thing we can notice is the alteration of English and Luxembourgish. Their previous album had already 2 songs with lyrics in their native language and this time they provided us much more of them. With 5 Luxembourgish song Clanrock manages to find the right balance of traditional and international music. Songs like Draco Magnus and Der Rivale are certainly not a problem to listen to if you do not know the language.

I managed to earn a physical booklet of this CD some years ago and I didn’t realized how lucky I was until last summer where I found out there were none else in sale in the web. And by having a look at the booklet I realized that traditional lyrics are not only Luxembourgish ones. There are popular songs from Celtic countries such as Star of the county down and Johnny I hardly knew ya revised in the song Guns’n Drums. Such a shame this one’s so rare to buy!

All in all a very solid release who’ll certainly bring happiness to Celtic folk lovers and non. Highly recommended.

Tracklist

1. Der Rivale 03:54
2. Flight of the Phoenix 04:50
3. Draco Magnus 05:26
4. De Walert 04:32
5. Amber Fields of Grain 04:18
6. 3 Gefuerdechten 06:02
7. Clouds 05:55
8. And Another Thing 02:07
9. Star of the County Down 03:33
10. Guns’n Drums 03:10
11. Flames 04:29
12. Bits n’Pieces 06:05
13. Listen, Learn and Act