Reviewed - 11/27/05

Legacy Of Heathens
[World Chaos Productions]

Pagan/Folk Metal fans, lend me your ears! Please, don't pull your ears off the side of your head and throw them at me like in Robin Hood - Men In Tights... just listen up! Do you consider yourself a fan of these genres of music, but don't care much for the traditional instruments that make their way onto Folk Metal albums? Well Finland's Falchion has something for you with their debut album "The Legacy Of Heathens"! This sounds like an infomercial, eh? Ronco would be proud! Maybe I can go into business with them. Do some sort of deal where you buy a Pocket Fisherman and get a Falchion C.D. for free? Yeah!

Falchion does offer us up some very nice stripped down Paganistic Folk/Heathen Metal. By stripped down I mean there are no keyboards, no flutes, no violins, no nothing but the guitars, drums, bass and vocals on this album. A few places I looked for band info on the Internet credits the vocalist as playing accordion for the band, but I don't hear it even though I've listened to the album five times all ready. While I prefer when a band uses traditional instruments in this style of music, this sounds pretty damn good. It probably sounds good to me because of that fact that none of these instruments are on here, which makes it a bit unique in today's extremely Folkified Folk Metal World. "Legacy Of Heathens" does have a lot more in common with Pagan Metal than it does with Folk Metal, so I can understand the lack of traditional instruments. That said, there are quite a few Folky melodies on the album, and these are all done with various impressive acoustic and electric guitar melodies. The music on "Legacy Of Heathens" really reminds me of Ensiferum's debut album because Ensiferum's debut album (unlike "Iron") was devoid of traditional instruments as well. One of the best things about this debut Falchion album aside from the thundering and plodding and almost Battle-like melodies, are the guitar solos that Juho and Jani came up with. At times these solos are very reminiscent of Yngwie Malmsteen's classical influenced solos. It's very impressive!

The lyrics on the album are written and sung in English and are nicely written weaving tales of fantasy, Paganism, battles, Vikings and folklore. Each song is written out like a mini story, and I've liked lyrics that tell stories a lot more than when bands write lyrics that read out like poetry. Falchion's vocalist Juho Kauppinen sings in mid temp and mid ranged Black Metal style and has a slightly Folky delivery to the pronunciation of certain words. While this vocal style is a style I've heard often before, he does it with a lot more power and conviction than a lot of other vocalists.

The production on this album is amazing! I was expecting the sound to be horrible since I had never heard of the label before, which usually means the label is small and doesn't have much money to give bands for recording, but this is not the case at all. In fact, I daresay "Legacy Of Heathens" is one of the best, most filled out and well rounded sounding albums I've reviewed this year!

The layout and packaging of the album is extremely well done and has an almost "classy" feel to it. When I saw the cover art online before I got the album, I thought it sucked and looked like a grade-schooler painted it, but that image I saw must have been a low resolution image or something because to see this cover in real life is really something to behold. The cover shows what is two Dark Elves or maybe they're Ogres or Trolls of some sort standing in a battle stance in the midst of a misty forest. It's a really subtle and stunning piece of art and the detail, especially when it comes to the detail in mist-shrouded trees, is exquisite. The artist who painted this is named Timo Tyynusmaa, and I sure hope to see more of his/her art on album covers in the future. The lyric booklet is made out of light cardboard material, which is kind of cool. Inside of this booklet they have included a group photo of the band as well as all of the lyrics.

Fans of Ensiferum's debut album would be the ones I most recommend "Legacy Of Heathens" to. Fans of this style of music that prefer tons of traditional instruments permeating the album may want to listen to it first before buying. I myself fully enjoyed this debut C.D. and look forward to what the band comes up with for their next one! People into Korpiklaani will definitely want to take note that Falchion's vocalist and guitarist also plays accordion for Korpiklaani!