Album Review: Equilibrium - "Sagas"

Artist: Equilibrium (Germany)
Album Title: Sagas
Label: Nuclear Blast (Germany, USA)
Released: 2008 (June)

Hailing from the German state of Bavaria, Equilibrium has been around since 2001, when the band formed with the original intention to play a single show. Fortunately for us, they were encouraged by the positive reception to continue on, and so far have graced us with two great albums. Their debut, Turis Fratyr, was released in early 2005 on the German label Black Attakk, and gained them a pretty large fanbase considering the album became very difficult to find. I myself had to obtain it from Germany earlier this year, as an addition to my Menhir Hildebrandslied order. Appearances at festivals and such also helped spread the word about Equilibrium, and eventually that word reached the ears of large metal label Nuclear Blast, who signed the band to a contract and have exposed them to a much larger audience with the release of their sophmore album, Sagas.

Sagas is a huge album. In pretty much every possible way. Not only does it hover around the 80-minute mark (without any filler or unusual stretches of silence), but almost every one of those 80 minutes is very high on the intensity scale (somewhere between "epic" and "ridiculously epic," to be exact). They fly through the material, barely giving the listener time to catch his or her breath, and causing the 80 minutes to pass by quickly. Sagas consists of 13 tracks, including a brief instrumental somewhere in the middle, and a long (16 minute) instrumental closing out the album. Equilibrium's music can be described as extremely epic folk metal with lots of synths, German lyrics about Bavarian tales and such, and vocals that range from "black metal style" to "sort of death metal style." Despite the heavy use of synthesizers, the band's talent should not be overlooked, as these guys are quite good at what they do. You sometimes have to pay special attention in order to hear it past the soaring keyboard melodies and choir sounds, but there's a strong metal backbone behind the bombast.

Despite the fact that they are an extreme metal band with shrieking and growling vocals, Equilibrium doesn't try to sound menacing. Indeed, they're about as frightening as Gargamel from The Smurfs. The atmosphere of the album, instead, is one of adventure and fun. It's kind of difficult to be frowning while listening to Sagas. Grimacing, on the other hand, may be possible at times, depending on how you react to the some of the stranger moments on the album. Take, for example, the track "Unbesiegt," which sounds like it could have been a collaboration with "The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You"-era Gloria Estefan. I'm not sure what Latin percussion and jungle animal sounds have to do with European folk metal, but the song is actually pretty good once you get past that. Then there's the song "Snüffel," an ode to snuff (of course), which features ZZ Top riffs and, even weirder, the sound of an automobile engine roaring at one point in the track. These moments are signs that Equilibrium does not care about being taken completely seriously, and the lyrics and the overall playful atmosphere of Sagas supports this. Sure, because of this Equilibrium can't really be appreciated on the same level as more "serious" pagan metal bands such as Menhir, Moonsorrow, or Falkenbach, but, when you're in the mood for it, it's refreshing and very enjoyable.

Even if you can't get into "Unbesiegt" or "Snüffel" (you're not alone), there's still another 65-70 minutes of music on Sagas, and most of the tracks here are winners. There's a lot of very strong material on the album, and it's spread throughout the entire length of the CD. This isn't one of those albums that drops off in quality after the first few tracks. Even the long instrumental that closes the album, "Mana," is great. There are choirs, a violin, and even a panpipe on this final track, so even if (like me) you don't generally care for instrumentals, don't write this one off until you give it a chance.

Although Sagas is generally getting very positive reviews so far, it has its detractors. Many of its critics cite the saccharine-sweetness of many of the album's melodies and overall "uplifting" sound of the album (as well as its inherent folk-metalness) as critical failings of Sagas. I wouldn't necessarily recommend Sagas to those who feel that metal should always be menacing and dark. I would also imagine some pagan metal purists might dismiss it as major-label dilution and exploitation of the genre. Maybe that's true; I don't know. But I really enjoy Sagas; maybe not on the same level as I enjoy the latest Arkona or Moonsorrow albums, but, at least on a musical level, this is one of the strongest (and most fun) releases I've heard all year. Definitely give it a try.

Split CD Review: Чур / Опричь

Artists: Чур (Chur) [Ukraine] / Опричь (Oprich) [Russia]
Album Title: ...From the Ghostly Fog... / The Fireflower (Split)
Label: Stellar Winter Records (Russia)
Released: 2008

Ordinarily, I don't pay much attention to split albums, and I'm not really sure why that is. You're basically getting a couple of EP's on a single disc, so why do I so often avoid them? Part of the problem is that rarely have I heard a split where the two (or more) bands actually complement each others' music or sound like they have much in common thematically. A lot of times I'll enjoy one band and dislike the other, so when I do buy a split, it's often because I just want to obtain material from a band that I can't get on any of their other releases.

In this case, I am a pretty big fan of both bands involved, so purchasing this split CD was an easy decision to make. Chur impressed me quite a bit with his debut album, Brother Wind, which I discovered in early 2007 and bought basically because I thought the cover looked "folkish." It turned out to be one of my more pleasant surprises that year, a rather mature and focused debut CD, with great vocals and folk instrumentation.

However, I found his half of this split to be very disappointing. The two elements I enjoyed most about Brother Wind, the vocals and folk instruments, are nowhere to be found on these four tracks. Instead, we are given instrumental songs. Not that instrumental is necessarily bad (see early October Falls, Drudkh's Songs of Grief & Solitude, and most of Ulver's Kveldssanger for examples of this), but these aren't atmospheric acoustic songs or anything. They're mostly constructed of electric guitar and drum machine, and the overall feeling I got was that this was some guitarist's demo that he hands out to bands he's trying to join. There are words (lyrics?) printed in the booklet, which almost gives me the impression that either Chur ran out of time before he could record vocals, or that someone at Stellar Winter accidentally included unfinished demo versions of the songs on the CD. In all likelihood, however, this was intentional. And I'm sure Chur knows what he's doing, but after repeated listens I'm still not really digging it. It just sounds like instrumental metal, which is something I'm not interested in.

In the case of Oprich, I didn't really know what to expect. Their only previous release is a split with Kroda. That split is mostly notable because of Kroda's side, featuring the awesome two-part "Poppyfields Are Blossoming," but I feel that Oprich's contribution, the five-track mini-album Wolfen Loyalty, is an underrated and interesting bit of folk metal. It's certainly strange, especially the first two tracks, which is probably where many listeners gave up on it. The production is rough and inelegant, and certainly the overall sound is an acquired taste, but it grew on me after a while.

Oprich is perhaps better known (and respected, if by proxy) because of the band Vo Skorbyah, a project that mostly consists of Oprich members. Vo Skorbyah garnered strong reviews and a fair bit of attention from fans of underground metal after its self-titled debut CD was released last year, and it seems its success convinced the folks involved to keep the project going, despite their original intention for it to be a one-off.

I'm happy to report that Oprich's side of this split fares quite well. The band is still "quirky," and some listeners will probably still dislike them, but their four tracks are a definite improvement over Wolfen Loyalty, in my opinion. The production is much cleaner and the band sounds much more confident and mature this time around. The harsh vocals from Wolfen Loyalty have disappeared, yet there are still multiple sets of vocals to be heard. Vocalist Zhdana and violinist Vasilisa seem to be nowhere to be found, and the former is replaced on this release by two (session?) female vocalists, Nina and Maria. Yaromir, Rodoslav, and the now-departed Bersen tackle the rest of the vocals. Having five different vocalists on a four-song mini-album lends their half a lot of variety, perhaps at the expense of cohesiveness. It would be difficult to tell that each track is by the same band, because they sound so much different than one another.

The first Oprich track, "As in the Distance," is the least interesting to me, but the remaining three are all great. I don't think Rodoslav (founder of pagan neofolk band Krynitza and a member of Vo Skorbyah) was on the previous Oprich release, but he handles lead vocals on the final track, "Don't You Murmer, Mother Green Oaken Grove," and I'm a big fan of his unique vocals so this is was a treat for me.

I feel that Oprich has redeemed themselves (if indeed they needed redemption in the first place) with The Fireflower, and I certainly hope their next project is to create a full-length album. They've been around since 1998, so I think it's due. As for Chur, he's been signed to Hammermark Art Records (home of Kroda) and is currently working on his next full-length, and judging from the few samples on his website, it sounds like it's coming along quite well. It would seem that ...From the Ghostly Fog... is just an unfortunate misstep.

It's difficult for me to recommend this CD because of how disappointed I was in Chur's contribution to the split, but Oprich's half makes me glad I made the purchase. I'm not sure if that's a recommendation or not, but take it or leave it.

Album Review: Dalriada - "Szelek"

Artist: Dalriada (Hungary)
Album Title: Szelek
Label: Nail Records (Hungary)
Released: 2008 (April)

Dalriada is a band I just can't get enough of, so it was a very pleasant surprise when I found out they had quietly released their fourth album (the first two being under their former name, Echo of Dalriada) on the day of their appearance at Paganfest when the tour arrived at Budapest. While I waited for the CD to arrive, I watched the heck out of the video for "A Nap és Szél háza" on Youtube. While that single isn't necessarily on the level of "Táltosének" from their previous album Kikelet, it's still a catchy and enjoyable piece of music, and it gave me hope that their new album, Szelek, would be another worthy release in their already-strong discography. And, boy, were those hopes met when I heard the final product.

As a bit of background for those unfamiliar with the band (or who didn't read my previous review of Kikelet), Dalriada is a six-piece folk metal band from Sopron, Hungary, built mostly around the stunning and unique vocals of Laura Binder (or Binder Laura, following the Hungarian practice of putting one's family name first) and Hungarian folk melodies. If there is another band out there that sounds anything like Dalriada, I haven't heard them. They're quite a unique entity within the realm of metal.

Despite the fact that Szelek arrives only thirteen months after Kikelet (which, incidentally, arrived only thirteen months after their third album, Jégbontó), it doesn't sound half-baked or rushed at all. The band sounds very focused and tight on this release, and the songwriting is as strong as it as ever been. The vocals of Laura Binder and Andras Ficzek sound perhaps better than ever. While Szelek doesn't depart from the overall Dalriada sound, it does sound different than its predecessor in some pretty significant ways. First of all, they got rid of the violin that was featured on Kikelet. Second, the songs are less complex and are, overall, much more catchy and accessible than on Kikelet. They sound a lot closer, to my ears at least, to the Jégbontó sound, which is welcome. The songs are also not as heavy as they were on Kikelet, and seem to be more folk-based. Indeed, there are many "folk breakdowns" on the album, for lack of a better term.

As I said before, the songwriting is very strong on this album, and there are many memorable and enjoyable moments. There are rare occasions where a song may start to fall a little flat, melodically, but even in these infrequent incidents the song will redeem itself with a great instrumental section or chorus (see "Égnek Ostora" for an example of this). There's never a time when I think, "haven't I heard this melody from another band before?"

Fortunately, Dalriada seems to have fans in their own country, because Szelek was #2 on the Hungarian album sales charts on the week of its release; quite an accomplishment for a folk metal band, I'm sure. Now if Nail Records can only get their albums out of Hungary and into the hands of metal fans worldwide, they could really be onto something. All the ingredients are there, but unfortunately the distribution is lacking. A band this good deserves to get their music out there, so please, somebody, make it happen.

In the end, even though I had to import the CD from Hungary, it was well worth it and I would do it again if I had to. Do whatever you can to (legally) obtain the works of this great metal band.