Rating: 9/10
Release: 27 October 2023
Label: Independent

Odraedir is a five-member epic folk metal band from the Czech Republic, and “Vengeance” is their second album– the first one of this decade. It’s a banger, and it’s far more polished and professional than 2017’s Legends of the Dark Times. It stretches between epic and dark folk metal and features dual vocalists– a harsh male and clean female– and that dynamic and juxtaposition is almost always a winning one. Vocals are joined by a standard metal arrangement, a flute, fiddle and bagpipe for some real folk metal moments.

This album is strong, and it’s bolstered by its great writing, so it’s weird to say that it starts with an intro track. Nothing against them, but they’re usually empty. Not here, though: There’s spoken word followed by a really decent epic and cinematic instrumental. It smacks right into “Inception”‘s opening melody guitar in a cool and powerful way. “Inception”, being the proper opening of the album, shows off all of the aforementioned features. Listening to so many albums, I love when bands do this. It gets me excited for the path ahead and shows off all the talent that’s going to be contained herein.

The rest of the album keeps up the pace. Notably, “Deep Sea Slumber” has a more lighthearted vibe with an Alestorm-ish opening, “Never Surrender” is a banger that’s somehow brighter and bigger than its surrounding tracks. “Vengeance”, the title track, is a gritty, angry little song. “Glacial Storm” and “The Last Say” close out the album, and both start slow and develop into colossal, majestic tracks. The album doesn’t really have any misses, but “Shackles” is a bit of a repeated beat and weaker brother to “Never Surrender”.

“The Last Say” is my favorite track. It’s a great way to end the album. It has some of that high-production-value symphonic magic mixed with great lyrics and a memorable melody. Perfect track. No notes.

By the time of this writing, it’s already out on major streaming platforms, and it comes very strongly recommended. Hopefully we won’t be waiting so long for their next album.

Tracklist

1. The Other Side 02:16
2. The Inception 03:39
3. Back to the Void 04:56
4. Deep Sea Slumber 05:10
5. Driven by Lust 04:19
6. Hand of Justice 04:55
7. Shackles 05:13
8. Never Surrender 03:11
9. Vengeance 04:21
10. Glacial Storm 05:46
11. The Last Say 07:22