Tag Archives: Celtic Metal

2014 Staff Picks- UK Editor Steve Tovey’s Top 25 not in his Top 25…

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Here are the “Top 25″ albums I heard this year that didn’t quite make my Top 25. Maybe there’s something in this for you to check out?

As is always the way I’m discovering more great albums from this year now from everyone else’s lists, so, looking forward to checking out Code Orange, Indian, Krokodil, Hark all amongst others!

ANAAL NATHRAKH – Desideratum

Relentless anarchic vitriolic mix of black metal and intense industrial. Reviewed this one – you can read the review here: https://ghostcultmag.com/anaal-nathrakh-desideratum/

ANTROPOMORPHIA – Rites ov Perversion

Old school influenced Death Metal. Good vibe. Nowt new, but bloody well done.  Reviewed this one n’all: https://ghostcultmag.com/antropomorphia-rites-ov-perversion/

ARCH ENEMY – War Eternal

Best one they’ve done since Burning Bridges. New vocalist is better than Gossow too. Ha, another I reviewed if you’re interested. https://ghostcultmag.com/arch-enemy-war-eternal/

ARTIFICIAL BRAIN – Labyrinth Constellation

Mental Death Metal.

AUTOPSY – Tourniquets, Hacksaws & Graves

More great Autopsy, innit

COFFINWORM – IV.I.VIII

Hateful, with big, skull crushing riffs. Heavy, weighty. Bit of sludge, bit of doom.

CONAN – Blood Eagle

Epic, heavy doom, innit. Reviewed n’all: https://ghostcultmag.com/conan-blood-eagle/

DARKEST ERA – Severance

Bit of trad, bit Celtic, good riffs, strong vocals. Promising. Good band, good album. Another I wrote about. https://ghostcultmag.com/darkest-era-severance/ (Not necessarily the song I’d have chosen for a vid, but decent enough)

DELAIN – The Human Contradiction

Poppy, bit more symphonic than I was expecting. Went down a storm at Wembley with Within Temptation too.

DEVIN – Dark Matters

Aka Ziltoid 2. The heavier, more symphonic, more metally of the two parts of the double album. I like it, just a bit too much monkeying around at the expense of the songs, for me.

DRAGONFORCE – Maximum Overload

Not quite as good as ‘The Power Within’ but still proving they write better songs since changing vocalists. Some belters on here, tbf.

ENGEL – Raven Kings

Like In Flames, but heavier guitars and catchier choruses. I like this one (well, I like them all on here, or they wouldn’t be on here, but this surprised me). Wrote about it, too. https://ghostcultmag.com/engel-raven-kings/

EPICA – The Quantum Enigma

Took a few listens, but once it clicked, there’s a lot going on but it’s bloody massive. Symphonic to the max. Another I wrote about. https://ghostcultmag.com/epica-the-quantum-enigma/

GRAND MAGUS – Triumph & Power

Ronseal Metal. Doesn’t quite compare to Hammer of the North or Iron Will to me, but big Valhalla filling songs. Very enjoyable, if no surprises. Another of mine. https://ghostcultmag.com/grand-magus-triumph-and-power/

I AM HERESY – Thy Will

Haven’t listened to it for a while, but appealed a lot at the start of the year, and a good combo of metal and hardcore that mixes it up a bit. https://ghostcultmag.com/i-am-heresy-thy-will/

JOB FOR A COWBOY – Sun Eater

Took me by surprise this one. Adding a large dose of Ulcerate to their sound, but all the better for it. Rather than rattle clattering through a load of sterile overly tight DM/core, they wrote some (very) heavy songs, too.

KING 810 – Memoirs Of A Murderer

The marmite album of 2014! Ha, I liked it. Big angsty anthems. Not perfect, but some quality tunes. Korn meets Slipknot fo’ sho’, but some different stuff going on too. Another one off the review list! https://ghostcultmag.com/king-810-memoirs-of-a-murderer/

LORDI – Scare Force One

I like Alice Cooper. I love King Diamond. This mixes the two with aplomb, delivering a monster munch bunch of good fun tracks. https://ghostcultmag.com/lordi-scare-force-one/

MORBUS CHRON – Sweven

Interesting album, this one. Don’t think I’ve quite given it all the time it deserves, but another I’ve liked this year that doesn’t just sit in a box. It starts from Death Metal but doesn’t stay there.

OBITUARY – Inked In Blood

Really good comeback album. Big grooves. Big riffs. Great tunes. Well done. Best Obi’s album since ‘Cause of Death’ , for me.

ORIGIN – Omnipresent

This is a relentless fucker, this one. Love the aggression, love the riffing, love the technicality, love how much it just wants to punch you in the ear drums.

SLEEP OF MONSTERS – Produces Reason

Babylon Whores are one of my “hidden treasures”, probably the most underrated band of all time, always loved Ike’s vocals, too. He doesn’t quite hit it with his new outfit, but some cool gothy, dark/death rock going on. Grabbed this one for review as soon as it appeared in the inbox. https://ghostcultmag.com/sleep-of-monsters-produces-reason/

SLUGDGE – Gastronomicon

Only heard this once so far, but really impressed me on first go, will be getting a fair few listens going forward. Interesting modern melodic death metal.

TOMBS – Savage Gold

Black metal meets post-metal. Really good shit.

WITHIN TEMPTATION – Hydra

Started the year with this one. Massive pop-metal. Preferred the last one and Silent Force, but it’s got some big old songs, mofos. https://ghostcultmag.com/within-temptation-hydra/

Steve Tovey


Primordial – Where Greater Men Have Fallen

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The toms stir, an introductory galloping battering, a rhythmic tribal call to arms, as the simple lead guitar line rides up and down the front of the horde, rousing, preparing, hinting at what is to come, as the opening track of Where Greater Men Have Fallen (Metal Blade) builds to kick into a timeless opening, an initiation where all the trademarks of the very best of Primordial are evident. Our title track erupts  with ‘Hammerheart’ (Bathory) meets ‘Blood Of My Enemies’ (Manowar), driving, open, churning chords and Alan ‘Nemtheanga’ Averill’s distinctive, powerful vocals, preaching, imploring and then leading a stirring chorus to what is, unconditionally, one of the anthems of the year.

After a gap of three and a half years since the Redemption At The Puritan’s Hand this is a mighty return, with the weight of expectation not just shrugged off, but decimated by the pounding Pagan Metal delivered by the hands of the best in the business. For, at their peak, Primordial have no peers in the field of the epic.

Emote is what Primordial do best, and this is an album that drips with feelings of regret, reflection and, conversely, inspiration; Averill’s intelligent themes, authoritative words and voice enhance the profound interplay of Ciáran MacUiliam and Michael Ó Floinn’s guitars, whose interaction on tracks like ‘Come The Flood’ call to mind Anathema’s grandiose The Silent Enigma (Peaceville). ‘Born To Night’ gradually unfurls to reveal a ‘Battle Hymn’ most proud, while ‘The Seed of Tyrants’ releases the rage, nodding to a more extreme past, both musically and lyrically. While Primordial are oft mislabelled as a Black Metal band, ‘…Tyrants’ serves as a reminder from whence they came, but, as ever with those touches of class the band possess to enhance, colour and immerse.

Yet, this is not a flawless album, as with blood both stirred and pumping by our introduction, ‘Babel’s Tower’ and ‘The Alchemist’s Head’ are downers; decent if unspectacular down-shifts of pace, which, while still intrinsically “Primordial”, call to mind the unhurried moments of Imrama (Cacophonous), and despite Averill’s impassioned story-telling, neither grab or evoke like the opening track, or the crushingly pessimistic ‘Ghosts of the Charnel House’. That can be the problem when you start that strongly, as it is a high watermark for the rest of an album to live up to.

After establishing their sound on second album A Journey’s End (Misanthropy), it has been since their fifth album, The Gathering Wilderness (Metal Blade), that the band have truly matured and hit an exceptional run of form that takes them into Where Greater Men Have Fallen, their eighth full length, and its moving combination of classic Bathory inspired metal, doomier tropes and an unmistakable grasp of the epic, all draped in those characteristic Primordial effects.

Yet, are Primordial victims of their own success? The previous three albums are of such a high standard, and are pregnant with anthems that, like the title track or the exceptional closer ‘Wield Lightning To Split The Sun’ – murky, bleak, earnest, wringing with remorse and possibly the best piece of music the band has delivered over the course of their career – means that when Primordial deliver “good” it can, initially appear disappointing.

Bookended by two incredible tracks is a layered, powerful and impassioned album, resplendent with mood changes, from reflective, to angry, to moving – the leads that pull ‘Born To Night’ to its close soulfully uplifting – and to judge by the merits of others Where Greater Men Have Fallen stands tall. Yet measured by their own imperious canon, this latest release, while showcasing everything that is respected and esteemed of Primordial, is not first among equals.

Primordial are too proficient an outfit to release anything other than an excellent album. Just how excellent, when compared to their own standards, is the question at hand, but Where Greater Men Have Fallen is laden with dark anthems and fervent sincerity and, chest out, stands proudly as a laudable addition to a most impressive catalogue.

 

8.5/10

Primordial on Facebook

 

STEVE TOVEY


Darkest Era – Severance

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Pitched under the banner of Celtic Metal, Darkest Era’s second full length, Severance (Cruz del Sur), shares more with the Dark Forest’s and Slough Feg’s of this world than it does with a Cruachan or Waylander. With elements of Atlantean Kodex and Trouble prevalent, it is an album borne more of the traditional metal vein than any of the blackened folk ilk that usually fall under that description. That’s not to say there aren’t traces of black metal in their sound, but this tree is rooted in classic metal.

 

While vocalist Krum (anyone for Quidditch?) rightly takes plaudits for his strong, powerful clean vocals, it is the excellent dual guitars of Ade Mulgrew and Sarah Weighell that keep the ante well and truly “up” throughout with some crushing gallops. In between they flit seamlessly between clean passages and Di’anno-era Iron Maiden harmony riffs and trade-offs, before scooting back into well-crafted and heavy classic metal riffs.

 

‘Sorrow’s Boundless Realm’ leads the way, an acoustic build up into a blackened riff, before the anthemic ‘Songs of Gods And Men’ stirs and rouses, calling to mind more recent Primordial (they can be forgiven for stealing the middle section and solo from Thin Lizzy classic ‘Emerald’). ‘Beyond The Grey Veil’ is a slower, more considered piece, leading to a doomier outro that calls to mind New Dark Age Solstice.

 

 

Come the second half of the album, the gauntlets are off and Darkest Era tear their way home. ‘Trapped In The Hourglass’ nods to Grand Magus before we move via the fist-pumping ‘The Scavenger’ and ‘A Thousand Screaming Souls’ to round things off expertly with the heroic ‘Blood, Sand And Stone’, an epic that spirals off via a dual-guitar build into a soaring lead, with Krum trumping his previous excellent work, fully opening his diaphragm to earnestly guide the ship home.

 

Mixing NWOBHM and epic doom, Darkest Era’s sophomore effort is an album of stirring and impressive classic metal, and is a call to arms that deserves to be answered.

 

8 / 10

Darkest Era on Facebook

STEVE TOVEY