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Hell yes! Son of a bitching fucking hell yes, I say! Being a fan of Folk Metal for many years now, I have acquired quite a few albums that fall in this genre (hundreds actually) that I love. Very few of them though can touch the greatness of "Reawakening Pride Once Lost", the debut album by the Irish lads collectively known as Waylander. It was one of the first Folk Black Metal styled albums to ever come out, and is still in my opinion one of the best.
Since "Reawakening Pride Once Lost" was originally released via Century Media Records in 1998, nearly a decade ago now, you may be wondering why the hell I am reviewing this now in 2006 for Metal Coven. Well, to put it simply, Century Media kind of dropped the ball on this albums' original release. They gave it very little in terms of promotion, and they didn't seem to print very many copies of it at all. Many people have wanted this album for a long time, but have never been able to find it anywhere. Years ago I called Century Media's U.S. headquarters and ordered it through their mail order department. The guy that was taking my order said "Hey, you're in luck! You got the last copy in stock!". This goes to show how rare the album was to find even years ago. Flash forward half a decade or more from me placing my order, and we rightfully see Midhir Records re-release the album worldwide so all of those that missed out on it the first time can finally get the chance to listen to this fine slab of Folk Metal. This re-release is why you see me reviewing an older album, my friends! "Reawakening Pride Once Lost" is at its base a rawer Black Celtic Metal album heavily steeped in Irish atmosphere and Irish Folk music. The music is actually pretty damn fast, raw and heavy, yet at all times even the guitars retain a melodic and pleasant Folk sound. This goes to show how great the musicianship is on this album. Not many Metal musicians can make an electric guitar or drums sound Folk-like, but Waylander did so here, and it is simply amazing to hear. The song structures and the songwriting skill on each track is top-notch and they use time changes with great effect. On top of all of this is the blatant excellent traditional Folk music that they inject into their brand of raw Celtic Metal. Acoustic guitars, percussion, tambourine, bodhran and tons of tin whistle give the album a heavy jig and "reel" sound. The tin whistle on this album is actuallymy favorite part of the entire album. Pretty much every song has the tin whistle meandering through it, but a lot of the time it takes center stage like it does on their rendition of "King Of The Fairies". Waylander tin whistler Mairtin MacCormaic does a phenomenal job with this simple looking but very important folk instrument, and the melodies he came up with for this album are some of the best played by any Folk Metal tin whistler except for maybe John O' Fathaigh from Cruachan. Simply awesome. This re-release contains two bonus tracks that appeared on a demo they released in 1996. They are both songs that ended up on the debut album, but these early versions are quite different. They are more rock oriented and even have keyboards in them. I don't care for the keyboards at all, but they are nice as bonus tracks because you can see how much the band's sound changed in the two short years between that demo and the release of their first full length. The lyrics on the album are in English for the most part, except for some lyrical passages that are Gaelic. The lyrical themes surround Irish history, how Pagan times contrast with modern times, ancient battles and nature. The lyrics tell stories, and that's perfect for this kind of music! Vocalist Ciaran O'Hagan (known to many now as ArdChieftain) usually uses an extremely raw and powerful Black vocal style, but every so often he opts to use a cleaner folk style and there are a few whispered parts that contrast quite well with the raw style he uses. There's also a few Death styled vocals to be found here, but these show up very rarely throughout the album mostly in the choruses. The sound of the re-release of "Reawakening Pride Once Lost" sounds pretty much the same as the original release. I don't think it was remastered at all, at least not that I can tell. But that doesn't matter much as the production was great to begin with. The demo tracks of course are a bit rougher sounding, but even the sound on these are quite respectable. The cover art for this Midhir Records re-release is different than the original version, but only slightly. The metalwork design on the cover has brighter hued gold coloring, and the Waylander logo is different. Besides that, it's pretty much the same. The main focal point of the album cover shows an ancient warrior standing in front of a single stone that is inscribed with some Celtic design. I think that single stone thing is actually called a Menhir, but I could be wrong. Anyway, the inside of the booklet has all of the lyrics to each song as well as an excellent Celtic styled painting that takes up two pages of the booklet. There's also a group photo of the band and a short note from ArdChieftain to all of the Waylander fans contained within the pages of the booklet. Waylander came out with another album after "Reawakening Pride Once Lost" called "The Light, The Dark And The Endless Knot". This was a damn great album as well, but I always find myself listening to this debut a lot more due to it being more catchy and the Folk elements being more blatant and in your face. Midhir Records must be applauded for re-releasing this much sought after and hard to find C.D.! You have no excuse at all now to not own one of the finest Folk Metal albums ever made. And even if you're like me and own the original version, you should still go out and get this for the bonus tracks it offers. There's been talk of a new Waylander album for years, but it's seemed to hit quite a few roadblocks on its way to being actually released. Here's to hoping we don't have to wait too much longer! | |
