Rating: 8/10 Release: 10 February 2020 Label: Independent Italian Renaissance Celtic Folk Rock band Corte di Lunas have released their album ‘Tales from the Brave Lands’. The sound has developed over the past three releases from instrumental medieval folk through a somewhat dreamy folk-rock sound. On their previous EP ‘The …Continue reading →
Elvarhøi’s debut full length ‘Dansen låter fra graven åter’ was chosen the as the ‘Best Debut-album’ by the team of Folk-metal.nl. Time to have a chat with these guys, about this album, the long period it took to get this album to see the light of day and more.
Congratulations with your album ‘Dansen låter fra graven åter’ which is Folk-metal.nl’s Debut Album of 2019! What are your feelings? Chris: “Hello Michel! First of all, an enormous thanks for the honor of being picked as your number 1! We cannot overstate how happy we are that our album receives such high praise after having worked so long to make it. It has been a true labour of passion, and the fact that it is able to touch other people and give something to listeners worldwide is extremely heartwarming to us. We were fully prepared to release it without anyone at all batting an eyelash, so this definitely means a lot to us.”
Sometimes you stumble on a hidden gem. Lately a band called Barad Guldur from Italy was brought to our attention. We took the opportunity to ask them a few questions at once, so we can get to know them a little better.
The Blend
Hi, I think a lot of our readers don’t really know Barad Guldur. Can you tell us a bit how the band started? “Hi to all of you at Folk Metal.nl and thanks for this interview! Barad Guldur were born from the desire to merge metal, folk and epic music with tales, horror stories, paganism and Tolkien’s writings. Our band started a few years ago with some cover songs that were shared on YouTube with the aim of finding the right sound.
Wind Rose didn’t only release a new album this year, but there are things going on live as well. Time to chat with Claudio about a few things.
Dwarves in Time
Wind Rose started quite a few years back. How did you guys meet? “Hi everyone, Claudio here, guitarist of the band. Francesco and I were together in the same school of music in my small hometown in the province of Pisa. The school set up a Christmas concert and put us in the same band to play a couple of rock songs. The keyboardist Federico is my cousin, we started the band together and we included Francesco some months later. Cristiano started teaching bass at the same school of music, while Federico the drummer we got in touch with him when we were looking for a new drummer after the former one left the band.”
Rating: 8/10 Release: 10 November 2019 Label: Songs of Evil Débler released a new album, their third one already, called ‘Adictium’. What music can you expect, the answer is a bit the same as when you ask us why the the previous albums weren’t reviewed by Folk-metal.nl. The Spanish metallers …Continue reading →
Rating: 9.7/10 Release: 30 October 2019Label: Independent Is is worth mentioning in the Guiness Book of Records when you release your debut-album after 15 years? A now brainer this releasedate, because it’s Elvarhøi’s 15 anniversary. They released an EP in 2006 and besides that 2 singles and a demo, but …Continue reading →
Rating: 8/10Release: 25 October 2019 Label: Rock State Records ‘En Tierra de Castillos’ is the new album of the Spanish Heavy / Folk Rock/Metallers of Ars Amandi.The history of the band goes way back to 1996, but of the line-up of those days only Dani on Vocals, bagpipes and whistles …Continue reading →
Rating: 7.8/10Release: 25 October 2019Label: Metalville It’s two years ago, when the Medieval rockers of Vogelfrey released their last album, so it’s time for a new one. And to be honest at once, that’s how it feels sometimes.On this album we can find 10 songs in the Medieval rock style …Continue reading →
Rating: 9.5/10Release: 15 October 2019Label: Independent ‘Kinder des Zorns’ is the title of the new album of Forgotten North. It’s their 4th studioalbum in 20 years. A few years after their first album in 1999 they broke up, came together and broke up again. They joined forces again in 2014 …Continue reading →
Steignyr released their new album ‘Myths Throught The Shadows of Freedom’ a little while ago. Jon Thorgrimr, vocalist and guitarist of the band answered our questions.
Hi there, congratulation with the new album. Are you satisfied with the reviews on it? “Honestly yes, people have to be critical, otherwise everything would be perfect and boring.”
‘Myths Throught The Shadows of Freedom’ surely sounds folky. You like to describe the sound yourselves as Celtic. Our reviewer Jeff felt he couldn’t discover the Celtic elements, and feels it’s rather folk-metal. But that’s just an opinion and Celtic is something which is open for discussion anyway. In what way do you think the music is Celtic influenced? “What is Celtic? What is Folk ?, Folk is traditional music, and we don’t do that. We mark our line of work. They can say what critics want, but we do Steignyr.”
The flaws of the last two albums was a bit in the mixing/producing, do you make use of a producer for this? “We self-produce and record all our material, we cannot afford to hire anyone.”
I assume you have to cut costs in the album-process, where do you spend the money on and where do you really have to cut the costs? “If there were money we would spend it on better production.”
The previous album was released in 2016, so there was quite a gap in between the last two albums, what was the reason for this? “Personal problems of some members who, unfortunately, are no longer in Steignyr’s ranks.”
Since 2014 the line-up is very stable, how do you manage to do this? “No Manage, only live the moment.”
There are no real flutes and violins anymore in the music. Do you feel the keyboard can take this role completely? What are the pro’s and cons of this decision? “There is neither pro, nor against, hundreds of bands do that, Equilibrium is one of them.”
In our previous interview you said you had lots of plans. Videoclips, new songs and lots of shows around the world. Do you think you have succeeded in this? “We’ve been around the world with ‘The Prophecy…’, and it has been very satisfying. Videoclips are a several problem, but no have time to recorder.”
Do you think the Spanish (folk-)metal scene has changed for the better? “No”
Is there anything else you like to say to our readers? “This world is ours, don’t forget this.”
