This album came in with a (now not so)recent load of physical Russian albums from the above record label, and Niek was so kind to share in this late Sinterklaas present, he even gave me a choice! I chose Last Wail as a starter because I never reviewed, and never owned a Folk Metal album before. Now we’re here, seeing whether this album is worth our time.

Last Wail are quite a cool band as they provide the listener with an alternative spin on the whole female Death growlers-concept; some Folk Metal, drenched in Melodic Death Metal. It certainly is a feature that lifts Last Wail out of an depthless pool of Folk- and Melodeath bands that are already out there.
The Tale of Endless Night starts of with a lovely acoustic instrumental, aptly called Intro. From there, the band seem to run through their songs with ease, although that same ease tends to lean to boringness sometimes. A sole light of recognition comes in at the end when the band plays a version of Ensiferium’s Windrider, which is well done, but stands miles apart from the rest of the music, leaving it in the shadows.

Heidevolk is definitely doing something right. Their fourth studio record Batavi is to be released next week and the record’s first video is their most professional to date. It’s received a massive load of views already. They’ve also managed to strike a deal with Napalm Records, one of the better and bigger labels in Metal.

When we interviewed one of the band’s two vocalists, Joris Boghtdrincker, last October, he explained to us the meaning behind Batavi. ”The Batavi were a tribe that came to our country around 50 BCE, and settled the area close to where we live. They encountered the mighty Roman Empire on its northernmost fringes on the mainland. By allying with them they effectively created a buffer between Rome and the Germanic tribes. They paid their taxes by supplying the Roman army with warriors, that were sent to various parts of the empire. The fighting and horse riding skills of the Batavians were famed, and they even served as bodyguards to Nero and Tiberius. Eventually they revolted against the empire. Needless to say, their story is very inspiring to us so we decided to do a concept album based on their early history.”

I noticed this thing pop online last week, but I was too much of a goddamn lame-ass to do anything with it. I just listened to it till my ears fell off and then I mangled my nuts. No idea why I did that, but it wasn’t nice. How different from the song that Eluveitie – which is Gaulish for The Helvetian, so basically The Swiss – launched last week!

Havoc is its name and it’s Eluveitie’s first single of a seventeen (!) song album they released last Friday. The album is titled after the band’s homeland, Switzerland, obviously: Helvetios. Not only is it long in terms of number of songs, it’s also long in terms of playing time: 48 seconds shy of an hour. As I’m intending to order this bugger the very minute I finish writing this post I have no idea yet what it will be like, but if it’s all as good as Havoc, I’m going to have an orgasm that lasts 48 seconds shy of an hour.

While looking at Revolver Magazine’s favourite album covers of 2011, as Mhorgl’s Heresiarch was in there, I saw the cover of ChthoniC’s album Takasago Army come by and the album description certainly caught my mind. The first band that sprung to mind were the Finnish Whispered, who have a similar Japan-related theme spun through their music, and they also use the same weird string instrument. But where Whispered incorporates some traditional Finnish Melodeath influences in their music, ChthoniC uses more Folky elements.

Takao as a song is really good. First it got me craving for some melody which I later got, in the form of a bridge sung in Taiwanese. The song is very dynamic and diverse, and even though I generally despise Asian Metal (especially those weird Japanese bands), I think this is just great.

It’s been a lengthy day, so let me serve you a quicky and then hit the pillow. I came across this band from Western Kentucky some time ago, called Voyage of Slaves. Their Facebook page describes their music as ”Blackened Viking Zombie Thrash / Death Metal”, ”Death / Thrash Metal with a lemony, blackened twist” and “Old-school Death / Thrash Viking Zombie Metal”. I don’t claim to have listened to their full repertoire, but might I add that there’s a hint of Pirate Metal in there somewhere as well?

I’m fuckin’ about of course, but eventually the band does make a point: there are lots of styles and influences on display here. It’s Metal that’s both raw and unpolished, melodic, pounding and epic in the Folky sort of way. But there are also flat-out Black Metal patterns on occasion that scrape the skin of your back. All in all, nothing that the average Metalhead wouldn’t be appreciative off.

I would swear on my scrotum that I’ve heard this band before, just have no idea where and when. The track I’ve embedded only seems to be online since mid-June and either my short-term memory is leaving me or this just looks a lot like something else I’ve heard a longer time ago. It’s probably the former, combined with the scientifically proven fact that I’m an idiot.

But that’s not what I want to discuss today. Or ever. Instead, let’s talk about Brymir, yeah? They play a de-li-cious form of Pagan / Folk Metal, dark as an armpit inside a sweaty sweater, yet melodic as a motherfucker, like a mix of Ensiferum and Insomnium – thanks to motig for making that comparison and for recommending the band in fact. As inevitable as death, and you’ve probably already guessed it, these guys are Finnish.

The big moment! The top four of albums I’ve reviewed this year. If you’ve missed what came before this, these four were preceded by eleven other albums in Part 1 and Part 2 of this list. Today’s four are the absolute cream of the crop.

As you’ll read on, there’s one thing you might notice: Finland’s the winner. Each and every single band in this top 4 hails out of the most Metal nation on the planet. Something I only just discovered myself. I think the Finnish are to Metal what American are to hamburgers. What Germans are to cars. And what Dutchmen are to drugs and prostitutes.

Anyfuck, I can make this a long and boring speech up front, like they do with most award shows, but I think everyone would just prefer to fuckin’ get going with this! After all, it’s Christmas Eve tonight and I’m sure you’ll want to get back to spinning Metal albums sitting under the Christmas tree.

So, after our recent announcement of the list of lists, today marks the first part of three of our list. We’ll start with a grouping of six albums. Albums that are ‘good’, to such an extent that they should really be in any Metalhead’s collection.

These first six are in no particular order. In fact, to express this, I’ve put them in alphabetical order based on band name – and so actually they are in a particular order, but it has nothing to do with how high I would rank each.

By the way, to cover my ass, my list entries may not necessarily match up 100% with the grading given or the reviews themselves. The reason is time. Sometimes hearing something the first few times can be an amazing experience, but as time passes and you hear something more often, the experience wears off. Obviously a review should incorporate this possibility, but the simple truth is you can never be completely right or accurate. And tastes and preferences shift, in my case quite heavily over the course of this year.

So, what this list captures is longevity. An album’s capability to continue to capture its listener. In that sense, these are all albums that will stay interesting. Albums that need to be taken out of your huge motherfuckin’ album rack regularly or from time to time, because they will keep on tickling pleasure bones.

Vienna was shaping up to have a blast of an evening with the tour lineup that was announced. Three strong Metal acts with varying degrees of pagan leanings, all touring on recently released albums and all producing music that works great in a live atmosphere. Escape, a pub of around 200-capacity in the room downstairs itself, didn’t know what hit it. Moonsorrow and Týr were co-headliners; some may argue that they are different sounds, but, as Mitja and Ville pointed out, Pagan Metal is not governed by genre stylings but by an atmosphere, which was certainly present at this concert.

For the fans of dark black Viking Folky type of Metal, otherwise known as Vikingy Black Metal or Folky Dark Metal, we’ve got Slartibartfass. “What? Slarty bass fart?” Yeah, something like that. It’s Slartibartfass, which is German for Slartibartfast, which is a character in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book series. I didn’t know that, so I’ll just continue to read the dirty version.

Anyfuck, going back to the band from the German city of Ulm, they’ve got a new record out. Their fourth since forming in 2004 and it’s called Schwarz Verhüllt, a German title, just like their three earlier works. It means ‘Black Covers Up’ or ‘Black Veils’ or something of that notion. Loosely said it’s probably meant as ‘Black Disguises’ or something. The album was released on October 26^th and the promo pack has been sitting on my desktop for weeks.