The Mosh Pit 11.06.09: Folk Metal

Posted by Dan Haggerty on 11.06.2009

This week the Mosh Pit explores the idea of folk metal, where it came from and what it makes it unique. We got examples from Melechesh, Orphaned Land, and Primordial for you to check out, plus a quick review of the new Nile album. Click the link for all the details!

Greetings and salutations one and all, we're back to the grind this week. Before getting into the column thanks to Jeff for giving me a heads up. Between my browser not getting the formatting and my ungoing war against html code I'm going to go postal. Hey – I took FORTRAN and PASCAL as languages in school so leave me alone.

Yes Ben, I'm old. And yes, they really thought those where future computer languages in 1988.

Stop laughing.

Anyway, two weeks ago, before Halloween, I did a column on Viking Metal. Then I promised a follow up on the great music in the folk metal scene, and as promised (with a break for pumpkin day) here we are. So without anymore run around, here is the 411 on folk metal and a few bands to get you started.



Folk Metal



Heavy metal is, like all music, a combination of sounds and styles that came before it taken in a whole new creative direction. Be it Led Zeppelin turning the bottom end on the blues or Queen putting the style and anthems into rock, music is a progression of what was, what is, and what the artist can add to it. Rinse and repeat through the generations.

Metal will be going on 40 years next year, and through that time it has continued to absorb new sounds and styles to increase it's palette of offerings. Thus we have the much-hated subgenres and technical identifications. 70's hard rock and metal distilled and proudly championed begot Judas Priest. Add punk and aggression and you get thrash. Add progressive music and technical chops and you got progressive metal. Add MTV and accountants to perfectly good sleaze and you get glam.

Yea, the jokes are never ending.

Simplify thrash to a few riff patterns and a catchy as hell hook, add back in the street cred of punk, and you get groove. Add hardcore and you get metalcore. On and on unto infinity with this line of thinking.

Overtime, metal takes other forms of music and adds it to its sound (symphonic), absorbs new ideas (neo-art exploration of drone), or evolves existing sounds (death is just the extreme sport version of thrash). In the end, this adds to an ever-growing cannon. When Bathory took the traditions of northern Europe and married them to black, what we got was by definition the first Viking metal album. In reality, what we got was the first folk metal songs. The core idea wasn't that this was about Vikings, but the traditions of the region. It was more than imagery; otherwise Manowar would have beaten him to it a decade earlier. It was the lyrical content combined with the actual ambience and music legacy.

That is why genre Nazis, current company included, harp on the fact Amon Amarth isn't Viking metal. They're death metal (albeit damn good death metal) with Viking themes. These are no classic traditions from those lands within the music, outside of the lyrical content and band image. Nothing wrong with that, the band is still great.

This is just a matter of defining the subject so YOU know what you're getting into. Nile is another example. They aren't "Egyptian Metal" or any other silly moniker, their just technical brutal death with really well researched subject matter. Love is to death (ahem) but that is the facts. Although their new album is upping the ante on that to say the least.

Viking metal, however, is folk metal because it does use the musical traditions of the region it represents. From song structures, to atmosphere, to actual instruments at times. It takes actual "samples" if you will, and imposes it onto a metal frame. You got more than tales of men in long boats; you get the stories of man versus the harsh terrain laid over traditional music of Norway or Scandinavia.

It is also worth mentioning that it hasn't stopped here. The idea of themes has carried and now we're getting bands that are not so much inspired by regional influences, but pure style. One good example is the somewhat ridiculous, even if fun in a guilty pleasure sort of way, idea of "Pirate Metal" in bands like Alestorm. Here, the emphasis is more basic metal (very bombastic and happy power metal in this case) ties with the concept of pirates, emphasis on the popular imagery versus any real historical accuracy. From an artistic standpoint, it's fairly lean and sort of like a pop-metal version of folk, but it is no doubt a lot of fun.

Back to the real subject. To give you a better diversification of the really great folk metal hiding out there in the metal underground, here is some albums that are I my mind classics already.



Melechesh – Emissaries

If you're going to work with the folk traditions of the Middle East, you might as well go full ancient Sumerian. If that wasn't enough, what would generally be considered part tradition, part folk legends, and part pagan in today's Muslim/Christianity/Jewish split land is added to a death and black metal album of pure ripping concussion force. Make Nile faster, blacker, and give their riffs some Middle Eastern traditions and here you are. This thing flies, and that is no joke. It rips and runs with lightning fast axes and waves of percussive force, Ashmedi screeching the words and vision of lands that once housed the cradle of civilization. And oh what an alien world it would seem.

But that stuff is cool and killer, but the real musical might is how the band integrates real Middle Eastern constructs into the guitar riffs. We're not talking other instruments or background noise. They write the actual guitar riffs, the one's flying at the speed of history, within those themes. So it sounds like your hearing awesome death/black metal… that has cool but slightly alien axe work. No tricks or cute instrumentals here before getting down to business, the music is fully integrated and unless you really pay attention to the guitar work you wouldn't know it. Well, you know something is up but it all sounds like brain damaging death anyway so you move on to letting your neck snap!

One of the best albums of 2006 that most metalheads haven't heard, hands down. If you like death metal of blackened metal, or extreme metal with a twist, then you need to give this one a shot.












Orphaned Land – Mabool

I've covered this one before, but it's good time to bring it back. Like Melechesh, this has Middle Eastern themes, but unlike Melechesh this is straight death with full use of choirs and period instruments. The speed is ratcheted back and the aggression is judiciously used in a story context. That is good, since this is a concept album based on the traditions of all three major religion's folk tales on the great flood.

Is there a religious theme? Yes it is, but this isn't a pro-religion album. This is the story of the flood from the perspective of cultural legends from that region, intertwined into a fable of three angels representing the three religions as they try to warn mankind that, as God had tossed their asses out of heaven, so was he about to bring the hammer down on mortals. In fact, technically, it doesn't feel religious at all outside the story being how mankind fucked up and a pissed off God whipped 99% of them out. That's quite the accomplishment. When you say it that way, the Old Testament sounds like the perfect place to mine for death metal when you mine it for stories versus sermons.

Outside of good writing and performances, this has that elusive epic feel thanks to the well-placed use of choirs (speaking in the right language), traditional instruments, acoustics, pianos (?!) and song craft. Yossi Sassi just doesn't play the guitar; he also plays the saz, buzuki, and oud. This feels less like a death metal album at times, and more like a well-researched soundtrack to a documentary on the subject. That is impressive and I can see why it took years to produce this thing. But don't worry, just when you get complacent in thinking that the clean vocals and rolling atmosphere is too eclectic to be metal, here comes Farhi with the growls to bring in the wrath of God. When it kicks in, it kicks in as it comes off as heavy and meaningful. Less headbang, more art, the right mix of both to make you a believer.











Primordial – To The Nameless Dead

Moving away from the east and into Europe, this time we'll go to Ireland and the Celtic folk inspired tales of Primordial. I missed this when it first came out, but it quickly rose to become one of my favorites from 2007. This is one bad ass album. What you have is the spirit of the Celtic folk traditions, wielded to the long historical look at ancient Ireland (including resisting Rome), all married to very ambient black metal. There is a lot going on, yet the band lets these firing speed riffs breathe as well, the wall of technical axes part metal mosh, part atmosphere where the percussion comes through, carries you off to barbaric lands, then proceeds to beat you senseless.

Nemtheanga takes you to the front lines of falling empires and the way of the tribe, he wails from the epicenter of the storm, his voice reaching out from Ireland's ancient war-torn landscapes to warn our generation of not taking the same roads. His voice has volume but provides yet another instrument to the wall of emotional sounds washing over you. But the emotion and energy is subdued, not in your face but cast into the words and delivery, the man for all the world sounding like he is reaching across time and space to deliver these messages of predisposed apocalyptic doom.

The drummer, Simon O'Laoghaire, is the man and he not only carries the band as a rhythm section, but he maintains a continual attack that is the spark of a true percussionist. Note how I said percussion, not just drums. This man puts on a masterful performance. Just listen to the instrumental break at 4:37 on "Empire Falls" and how he does that rolling pattern, or the jaw dropping beauty of his performance on "As Rome Burns". If the intro doesn't do it for you, then that pattern he rolls through (and builds from) during the break at 4:12 should. Now juxtapose that with the march-like soft cadence at the beginning of "Gallows Hymn" that builds through the intro, or the near tribal tumble of "Heathen Tribes". He's not a rhythm instrument; he's a full component of the band as another instrument, one that provides tones and textures to the songs. The man is one damn excellent drummer and his presence helps raise a very good piece of art into an amazing dark statement on the subject.

The whole band is tight and on cue, delivering a wall of dense and dark history. Just brilliant stuff here and true musical might on the front edges of metal evolution.

WHAT'S NEW IN THE PIT

Nile - Those Whom The Gods Detest Oh my, this is going to polarize the metal base. Nile is one of those bands that became to big to fast and split the death metal kids right down the middle. This will likely breach the gap more. This will not happen because this album is "less" death metal or because of the Middle Eastern and Egyptian flare Sanders has painstakingly put into it. And trust, more than any previous album this matches this week's theme by presenting folk elements with atmosphere, period instruments, chants, and traditional music to add tons of flavor. For those familiar with Sander's solo project, just imagine him adding small doses of that and your close. No, this is going to turn heads because the group has slowed it down at times to a more chugging, crushing execution of axe work. It's like a death band playing doom metal while the drums pound away at 666 beats per minute. This is the band being more expressive with their playing and less technical, and it will either work or not for people. But fear not, the real death is there most of the time and when the band opens up both barrels it's the usual fun brain damage. That's when the technical brutality returns and its still a good time. The production is a lot better than the last album, more full bodied with plenty of room for the bass to thump and the riffs to breathe. Jury is out on a score, but at first blush this a step up from the last album. I'm not going to compare it to AOTW, because it's real apples and oranges, except to say this sounds like it would have been a better album to follow up that classic. It takes the ideas but diversifies them so you get a new album instead of a repeat. Pit Score: Thumbs Up

That's a wrap folks. Next week, we return to basics and look at some classic rock. Until then be a fan and play it on 10!