“Ah, the Viking Age. One of the most mythologized eras in history, and a bottomless well of inspiration for cool things like video games, shows, books, tattoos, and bad things like obsession over ancestral purity, shockingly racist ideologies, and lutefisk. But the best thing of all, and most importantly, music! Which leads us to Danheim.” The poor Norsemen.
“It’s been a minute since I’ve got a chance to review some folk music around here. It’s not super common that we get these promos, but when a sample of dark folk, spiritually, resembles our heavy metal world, we occasionally find some sent our way. Today’s sample is Niht, the sixth full-length release from Dutch Sowulo (“sun” in proto-Germanic), which takes a philosophical approach to the histories of northern Europe. It’s got everything you could ask for in dark folk on paper: lyrics written in a language no one (to the best of my knowledge) speaks anymore, a small army of instruments that I can’t picture by name alone, and an inscrutable cover with a vague runic shape on it.” Things that go folk in the niht.
“Wÿntër Ärvn is a really cool project. It takes its inspiration from black metal of the ’90s and channels it into an almost fully acoustic and almost fully instrumental framework, building on many familiar feelings from that space—bitterness, inner struggles, anger, the usual stuff—in a pleasant, rather than jarring way. The French one-man project writes on acoustic guitars and builds on it such instruments as the cello, shakuhachi, and, yes, clarinet—but no electric guitars in sight. It’s a powerful concept and worked very well on Abysses, to the delight of the venerable Emya. Following up is always tricky, but a new album is here to continue the journey.” Folk around and find out.
“I remember perfectly where I was the first time I heard Forndom’s music through the album Faþir. Very early in the Covid-19 pandemic, Faþir was a peaceful harmony at the onset of an extremely troubling time. In part because of that emotional connection—and because it is an exemplary album—it remains in my regular rotation four years later. The ambient, Nordic folk musings of Ludvig Swärd continue to offer incredible catharsis in times of joy and sorrow. To say I am excited to be reviewing the follow-up and third full-length album from the project is a severe understatement.” Of empires Forndom.
“Last Rites | Dire Omens. Interesting album title, that. Last rites signify mourning and gentle acceptance, while dire omens suggest malevolence, a promise of death yet to come. Likely by design, these contrasting themes directly apply to the kind of neofolk and atmospheric black metal that Canadian duo Ulvik peddles, as the sad beauty of their folk music inevitably succumbs to a more pronounced black metal malevolence.” Nature in your face.
“Neofolk is a special style of art. It encompasses the achingly simple to portray stunning complexity. Everything is done with earnest emotion, and often the onus is on the artist not to simply entertain, but to transport the listener, through time, through places, and through very states of being. When I first learned of Kati Rán and her debut full-length release Sála, I was heartened by a single line in its promo copy: “Recorded in a barn in Húsafell, Iceland”—and I didn’t read further.” Barn razing.
“Way back in early 2020, Suldusk played the last show I attended before fun was canceled. I was introduced by the non-suspiciously departed Emya’s excellent TYMHM piece on one-woman debut Lunar Falls. This sort of black metal-inflected atmospheric folk is incredibly My Thing, as you can tell from where Helga landed on my list last year. So Suldusk were a pretty important fixture for me, particularly in the tough early pandemic months. The whole thing has that slight air of unreality you get with memories from around then. Now they’re back—finally—with a full band and signed to Napalm, so the stakes are high for Anthesis.” Dusk throne.
“Neofolk and heavy metal differ in many ways, but their unparalleled emotional intensity and outsiderness link the ethos of the two genres inextricably. The advent of Wardruna heralded a cultural explosion of Nordic neofolk, and the thrums of Heilung, Forndom, and Gealdýr have long resonated with metalheads worldwide. Viking-age music is understandably popular in the metal community, but neofolk is larger than the Vikings. Portugal’s Thragedium lives within the uncanny trench of neofolk and metal and plays neofolk that couldn’t be further from the usual Viking vibrations popular with metalheads.” Fvnerary fvlk.
When a new release appears from the man behind 16 Horsepower and Wovenhand, a rare double review becomes mandatory. Allow Cherd and Carcharodon to explain why David Eugene Edwards is a big fookin’ deal on both sides of the pond and everywhere else.
“Well, 1476’s In Exile is certainly more than I bargained for. Having dropped my previous promo for this week because I had suspicions about the political leanings of its members (that it was bollocks made this a happy development), I picked up 1476 on a whim. And it’s a lot. Of many things. A lot of music, clocking in at over an hour. A lot of styles and influences—the accompanying blurb describes In Exile as “wonderfully all over the place”; the latter part of that statement isn’t wrong but the adverb, we’ll see.” Leatherface and open space.
