Customer Reviews

Morrigan's Call

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you're familiar with this band (or have read reviews of their other CDs) you'll know Cruachan is an unusual mix of black metal, Irish folk, early 80's new wave chick vocals, and a dash of Pogues/Flogging Molly style folk-rock influence. Their first album was the most black metal, followed by two that were more rock, and Pagan and this CD tend to be the best mix of both (the Irish folk influence has remained throughout). The lyrics are a mix of Irish politics and folklore, with the occaisional dash of fantasy (this album has two Tolkien-based songs).
Although they don't work as perfectly for me as Finntroll, Blind Guardian, or Jethro Tull, I give Cruachan points for being original, especially in a time where most bands in a genre sound very similar. (And they were doing folk metal years before almost anyone else). The liner notes show they think hard about their lyrics, and that gets them some respect, too. I also find their music grows on me with each listen, and I think this is my favorite CD by them (I've got them all).

A recently I came across Cruachan's THE MORRIGAN'S CALL at my local library. I was immediately intrigued by the cover, and by the picture on the backside of the cd case. My initial impression was that this was a celtic band so being a fan of celtic music, I checked out the cd. I wasn't too far off that this band played celtic music however I was quite surprised (in a good way) by the heavy metal riffs. THE MORRIGAN'S CALL is definitely not something I was used to hearing in terms of metal. The fusion of celtic folk and black metal music took some time to grow on me but eventually I grew to enjoy the album. I particularly enjoyed listening to Karen Gilligan sing but could have lived without hearing Keith Fay growl or bark. Keith's vocals kinda ruins the beauty of the band's music for me. I enjoyed most of the songs except for when I hear Keith's singing. Overall THE MORRIGAN'S CALL is a solid folk metal album worth checking out.

I enjoyed the genre mixing of the band. At one point you can understand the lyrics, then it switches to the guttural death metal shout. The use of folk style music infused into the song gives the tune a beat rather than just a senseless grinding. You can hear a Metallica ballad influence on some of the songs. The Celtic sound adds to the enjoyment of the music. In Ungoliant I imagined this was a soundtrack to a fantasy-thriller dragon movie as was most of this music. If I was going to do a Middle Earth fantasy dragon film, these guys would do the sound track.

Cruachan recently changed labels, which seems to have delayed the release of their new album. October update: Cruachan website now gives new release dat --> 17 november... Wait and see...