Reviewed - 10/08/04
Resistance
[Somber Music]
Not too many metal bands seem to come out of South America anymore. I don't know if it's just because the music is a dying genre down there or if it's just an unwillingness on the part of American distros to import CD's from there or what, but there just doesn't seem to be the big influx of bands from this region as there was in the late 80's and early 90's. It does seem though that lately when I do come across a band from this area, they are usually far above average. Maybe South American labels are just pickier about what bands they let on their labels. Whatever the case, I was greeted with yet another outstanding album with its roots in South America when I got in "Resistance", the first full length CD of Brazilians folk black metallers Folklord.
The overwhelming majority of "Resistance" is comprised of a rawer form of black metal consisting of rapid fire drumming and fast as hell riffing, but there's also a bit of thrash-like structures to be found for sure. As I stated earlier, Folklord also combines folk nuances throughout the album. Most of this is done almost entirely by a flute. The flute is the lone traditional instrument that is credited in the booklet, but I think I hear a tin whistle here and there as well. This album is not overladen with folkiness, but it has more folk than most bands nowadays because a lot of the original folk metal bands are getting less and less folky as time goes on. Another great aspect of this album is the use of an acoustic guitar not only found in the intros and outros, but within the songs themselves as well. The acoustic guitar combined with the flute and the thrash/black metal aspect of "Resistance" makes this album a truly unique experience. All of the songs are executed very well and metal is not the only genre of music to be found here. A few of the tracks are in an acoustical folk style similar to Hagalaz' Runedance complete with the aforementioned flute and war drums. There are also a few sound samples taken from medieval battle scenes that help set the tone for the listener.
The lyrics are written and sung both in English and Portuguese, and are extremely well put together. The band's grasp of English is fairly decent, but some of the words and word structures are a bit fruity sounding, but it's commendable that they did these songs in English for the most part anyhow. I would never take away points from an album's score just because the English lyrics weren't written entirely properly, though. Hell, they can speak and write English infinitely better than I can speak and write Portuguese. Anyway, most of the album is taken up by a few mini storylines, and I must say that they have fucking excellent storylines!. The story of "The Secret Of Steel" Part 1 sounded familiar to me at first. See, the first part of this story is on the first track of the album and the second part is the last track of the album. It's not until I read along on the last track that all the familiarity hit home for me. It's a song about the Conan The Barbarian movie! That's very cool indeed, and it was cool to go read through the first song again after knowing what the story was about. After reading the lyrics to the second song where they used actual names from the Conan movie, It all made sense then. Another great great thing about this album is the track "The Cursed Egyptian Saga". It's a ten plus minute saga done in ten parts depicting the rise and fall of the ancient Egyptian civilization. The song's lyrical content is backed up by tons of Egyptian styled melodies. It truly is one of the best songs I've heard in a while. It's interesting and catchy at the same time and that's a lethal combination to most of us. The vocalist is very worthy of helping the bands' thrash/black/folk sound by being able to sing rather well in all three of those style as well. A few times he comes off a bit cheesy, but for the most part he does a superb job.
The production is above average, but certainly not the best I've heard. The low point is probably the drums which are a bit muffled sounding. Everything else especially the acoustic guitars sound great. It's not the best, but I've heard a lot worse though production, and I wouldn't let this mid-level production stop you at all from purchasing "Resistance".
The layout and packaging of the album is better than most albums I've gotten this year. Again, it seems that a lot of CD's I get from South America have great packaging. The first thing you'll notice about the packaging for "Resistance" is the excellent black slip case it comes in. It's cardboard and is just completely black with the Folklord logo, but it's a very cool bonus to have above and beyond an ordinary jewel case. The artwork of the album cover itself is a bit of a letdown. It just shows someone wearing corpse paint. The rest of the booklet is amazing though. The whole thing is in bright and vivid color, and it's finished with a high gloss finish that makes everything stand right out to you. All of the lyrics are included, and for the track "The Cursed Egyptian Saga" the band has put in more information material between the sung lyrics to flesh out the story more. Add to this a full two page photo of the band and some great CD tray insert photography, and you have quite a cool layout for "Resistance".
I implore anyone into folk and medieval metal to get this as soon as you can. "Resistance" is a fine work of art and anyone that gives it a chance will see that the band took care in just about every aspect of making this album. This album was so good that I'm going to try and track down their two demos and hope that it's not too long until a new album is released. Most of us into this type of metal hail the Northern Winds. Now I think it is time for us to let the Southern Winds blow across our land.
[Somber Music]
Not too many metal bands seem to come out of South America anymore. I don't know if it's just because the music is a dying genre down there or if it's just an unwillingness on the part of American distros to import CD's from there or what, but there just doesn't seem to be the big influx of bands from this region as there was in the late 80's and early 90's. It does seem though that lately when I do come across a band from this area, they are usually far above average. Maybe South American labels are just pickier about what bands they let on their labels. Whatever the case, I was greeted with yet another outstanding album with its roots in South America when I got in "Resistance", the first full length CD of Brazilians folk black metallers Folklord.
The overwhelming majority of "Resistance" is comprised of a rawer form of black metal consisting of rapid fire drumming and fast as hell riffing, but there's also a bit of thrash-like structures to be found for sure. As I stated earlier, Folklord also combines folk nuances throughout the album. Most of this is done almost entirely by a flute. The flute is the lone traditional instrument that is credited in the booklet, but I think I hear a tin whistle here and there as well. This album is not overladen with folkiness, but it has more folk than most bands nowadays because a lot of the original folk metal bands are getting less and less folky as time goes on. Another great aspect of this album is the use of an acoustic guitar not only found in the intros and outros, but within the songs themselves as well. The acoustic guitar combined with the flute and the thrash/black metal aspect of "Resistance" makes this album a truly unique experience. All of the songs are executed very well and metal is not the only genre of music to be found here. A few of the tracks are in an acoustical folk style similar to Hagalaz' Runedance complete with the aforementioned flute and war drums. There are also a few sound samples taken from medieval battle scenes that help set the tone for the listener.
The lyrics are written and sung both in English and Portuguese, and are extremely well put together. The band's grasp of English is fairly decent, but some of the words and word structures are a bit fruity sounding, but it's commendable that they did these songs in English for the most part anyhow. I would never take away points from an album's score just because the English lyrics weren't written entirely properly, though. Hell, they can speak and write English infinitely better than I can speak and write Portuguese. Anyway, most of the album is taken up by a few mini storylines, and I must say that they have fucking excellent storylines!. The story of "The Secret Of Steel" Part 1 sounded familiar to me at first. See, the first part of this story is on the first track of the album and the second part is the last track of the album. It's not until I read along on the last track that all the familiarity hit home for me. It's a song about the Conan The Barbarian movie! That's very cool indeed, and it was cool to go read through the first song again after knowing what the story was about. After reading the lyrics to the second song where they used actual names from the Conan movie, It all made sense then. Another great great thing about this album is the track "The Cursed Egyptian Saga". It's a ten plus minute saga done in ten parts depicting the rise and fall of the ancient Egyptian civilization. The song's lyrical content is backed up by tons of Egyptian styled melodies. It truly is one of the best songs I've heard in a while. It's interesting and catchy at the same time and that's a lethal combination to most of us. The vocalist is very worthy of helping the bands' thrash/black/folk sound by being able to sing rather well in all three of those style as well. A few times he comes off a bit cheesy, but for the most part he does a superb job.
The production is above average, but certainly not the best I've heard. The low point is probably the drums which are a bit muffled sounding. Everything else especially the acoustic guitars sound great. It's not the best, but I've heard a lot worse though production, and I wouldn't let this mid-level production stop you at all from purchasing "Resistance".
The layout and packaging of the album is better than most albums I've gotten this year. Again, it seems that a lot of CD's I get from South America have great packaging. The first thing you'll notice about the packaging for "Resistance" is the excellent black slip case it comes in. It's cardboard and is just completely black with the Folklord logo, but it's a very cool bonus to have above and beyond an ordinary jewel case. The artwork of the album cover itself is a bit of a letdown. It just shows someone wearing corpse paint. The rest of the booklet is amazing though. The whole thing is in bright and vivid color, and it's finished with a high gloss finish that makes everything stand right out to you. All of the lyrics are included, and for the track "The Cursed Egyptian Saga" the band has put in more information material between the sung lyrics to flesh out the story more. Add to this a full two page photo of the band and some great CD tray insert photography, and you have quite a cool layout for "Resistance".
I implore anyone into folk and medieval metal to get this as soon as you can. "Resistance" is a fine work of art and anyone that gives it a chance will see that the band took care in just about every aspect of making this album. This album was so good that I'm going to try and track down their two demos and hope that it's not too long until a new album is released. Most of us into this type of metal hail the Northern Winds. Now I think it is time for us to let the Southern Winds blow across our land.
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Tracklist:
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| Rating: 9/10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Release Date: 2004 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Length: 55:12 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Review By: Britton Dicks | ||||||||||||||||||
| Total Reviews: (1) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bands Website: Go Here | ||||||||||||||||||
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