If like me you were "somewhat" disappointed with the latest Moonsorrow you might well enjoy this latest release or debut album to be honest from Englands Ildra. This band seem to be very overlooked and unheard of from what I can gather, not much info on them unfortunately but I have to say their new album is an excellent peice of Saxon pagan black metal. I believe the bands lyrics are from an ancient and dead English language (I could be wrong?) and the music does give of that "ye olde" English vibe, especially in the folk interludes between most of the tracks. musically I would say they sound like a mix of "Blood, Fire, Death" era Bathory and Moonsorrow with long epic mid-tempo tracks throughout. Sadly can only find one clip on youtube recently put on by the bands label Sonnerune and I also beleive this to be their first release, a promising start for a young label.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL72Vuyf ... ideo_title

You've never steered me wrong before, Stormm. I'll check it out when I can find the damn thing.

You're spot-on with the new Moonsorrow too. Good, but doesn't stick with me like the previous one did.

Ha ha, I was just wondering when the next Stormm rec thread was coming. Good to see you again, man.
As for Ildra, they definitely seem like they could fill the vacuum for epic pagan metal that the latest Moonsorrow left.

Why thank you guys As for the last Moonsorrow, I had my hopes up but after a few spins I found myself disappointed and wanting something more, it def was not as strong as the previous albums. This new Ildra release is forfilling that gap left by Moonsorrow nicely, unlike the Moonsorrow album, the interludes between each track are alot more enjoyable and work well before the next black metal attack. Master_Debater not sure if you are looking to download or purchase, but if it is the latter I was able to track it down and order it from Those Opposed records.

Well, Moonsorrow´s last album is quite good, it has some brilliant folk melodies and the songs themselves are interesing, but Havittety was much better with its majestic dark atmosphere. Anyway I bought the album and I´m happy with it.

And about this band, its the first time I read about them, your description sounds really interesting and the album cover is nice so I will try to check this band out as soon as possible. Thanks bro! : )

I really enjoy Moonsorrow's last album. I'll check out Ildra, it sounds very interesting.

I agree - owns the shit out of the new Moonsorrow. I really like these new British black/pagan-type groups.

I love Moonsorrow and I really struggled to make it through the latest album more than a couple of times. Thanks for this!

Hey, that song was pretty darn good. The MA page doesn't list any track lengths. Is this song about representative or are they generally longer? They sound like they'd be good for 8-10 minute songs.

The tracks are quite long, the you tube track has also got a 2 - 3min folk acoustic interlude before it with the black metal tracks ranging from id say 5 - 8min, the overall album length approx 50 min but it does manage to sound longer if you know what I mean.

Ildra shirts now available!




ILDRA 'Eðelland'
Logo on front, text on back. Very limited run, order now.
Available in sizes S, M, L and XL.

Which distro has these in stock? I had just decided not to buy anymore shirts for a while but I might have to go for this.

Also, I'm looking for a copy of the Beorna Beaducraeft demo if anyone's wanting to get rid of theirs.

It's funny seeing this thread, since I've been on an Ildra kick lately! I actually just ordered my shirt last night. Arjan333 is the person behind the Heidens Hart label, and might I add a pleasure to work with. Considering my shirt is coming from the Netherlands to Alaska, the fact that Im paying less than 20€ is extremely reasonable!

What? New Moonsorrow was awesome! Huuuuuuuuuuuttttttttttttooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

I love the new Moonsorrow and the Ildra album as well.

What I really like about Ildra is their use of Old English in the lyrics. There are few bands that do that (Forefather is another example, another great band I've enjoyed lately).

I discovered both Ildra and Forefather through a recommendation thread about bands that use Old English, modern Frisian or Scots in their lyrics.

Scots is the closest related language to English, though some consider it a dialect, it is definitely different enough to be a distinct language (it has its own dialects, literature, history, etc). Not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic.

The Frisian languages are linguistically closer to English than other languages (except Scots and Yola) even though they resemble Dutch a lot more than English. This is because these languages are spoken in parts of Germany, southern Denmark and northern Netherlands.

Yola is sort of like the Irish equivalent of Scots. It's an extinct language and it wouldn't really be intelligible with English. I highly doubt any bands use this language in their lyrics, but if that is the case it would be an interesting listen indeed.

The problem with most bands using dead languages like Old (Insert Germanic Language Here) is that they end up barking syllable after syllable with no intonation (in the case of clean vocals) or fluency - it's obvious that they're reading the lyrics phonetically. If your interest in these languages is "anthropological" or "eclecticist", I don't think that this is the best place to get your fix.

Frisian and Scots aren't extinct, so any bands that sing in those languages ought to sing in them fluently. There are a couple Frisian bands, Welter is one that come to mind.

I don't know any Scots bands. Suidakra is a German band that has a song in Scots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcxJhj-c3X4

They might have more songs in Scots, I know "A Blackened Shield" has a short section in Scots at the end. I found these two songs just by searching lyrics for "tae" - Scots for "to".

Yeah, I was referring to bands that use the archaic forms of languages. I know there are bands using the Frisian language Never heard of Welter but it from the songtitles it looks like they use the Dutch language. Kjeld and Baldrs Draumar are the only two bands on this site I know that use/have used (West) Frisian, excluding a few obscure/unremarkable bedroom stuff. But anyways since we're not talking about dead languages anymore this is a little bit offtopic!

Moonsorrow's last album was damn near perfect: a band that just keeps on getting better and better, for my money.

This sample sounds a little reminiscent of what Moonsorrow used to do, although I wouldn't say it was very similar. Pretty interesting though! I will keep my eyes open for them.

We must listen to two very different Moonsorrows
Their last effort was pretty bland to my ears.

This was pretty good, but Moonsorrow's stuff is pretty untouchable IMO.

Great band. STORMM likes good shit. I'm a fan of Winterfylleth too, the UK has awesome pagan black metal bands, Wodensthrone is cool too.

Agreed on all accounts, UK has really got some great acts in the pagan metal scene. Sleipnir is another kickass Brit band, bee listening to them non-stop over the last week.

As far as the current crop of UK pagan blackened metal bands go, Ildra has been the one I go back to the most. Although I feel Ildra has closer ties to doom than black metal, I haven't heard the tape demos that preceeded the album, so maybe there was a stronger black metal presence displayed then. Either way, I can't get enough of them. I feel oddly connected to the music whenever I listen to it, like its stirring up ancenstral blood or something! My mom's side of the family has ties to Scotland and other areas of the British isles, so perhaps there's something to that! haha

Wow, did not see this old thread of mine resurfacing. Thanks Metantoine, we will just keep bouncing music of each other, I still cant get enough of Nekromantheon.

@Balor - Good to see Sleipnir has clicked with you, though it would mate. They seem very overlooked but epic as fuck at what they do, the multi layered chorus's sound huge and I can confrim they return in the upcoming new album which it seems is going to be way more epic clocking in at well over an hour. The track I have listened to, though a rough mix sounds great, sad and powerful at the same time.

@BBE - Still rocking to your new album bro, it is a great listen and so much to take it, hope it is shipping well for you guys. Ildra were quite a surprise find and very epic sounding and I like the big slow riffs. I still love the small acoustic interludes, they really psuit the music and give it that old english feel. A strange thing is there is very little info around on them on the, prob makes it all the more special!

I "acquired" this Ildra album - haven't listened to it yet - and I hope it sounds nothing at all like Wodensthrone.

It's somewhere between Graveland, bathory and Drudkh, if you want to comare it to something.

They're a bit similar, obviously they won't sound like Behexen, eh!

That's pretty accurate (though I still feel theres a doom influence as well). Musically its better than anything Graveland has produced, even though I've enjoyed his work from Immortal Pride on forward, for the most part. I really can't wait to see what this band can do for a follow up album! Its cool this band is as anonymous as they are...so the potential for the follow up to materialize out of the blue is a very real and exciting prospect!

Yeah, I think it's better than anything I've heard from Graveland, though mostly because of the vocals.



It's the vocals that really sell it, though there's nothing particularly wrong with the rest. It's a really solid album all the way through, not a weak track on there.

I really like the vocals myself, aside from the chorus's you can clearly hear the gruff english accent coming through and it's sounds great, gives it it's own unique spin, kinda similar to Bretwaldas.

You kidding? The last moonsorrow was amazing!!!! Heavy, and dark!!!! Cant wait to see these guys next month!!!

The UK is on a Pagan black metal high! I'll check this out as soon as possible!

Wow, really enjoying this album right now. I love this style of (slow / doomy) epic black metal; lots of similarities with Moonsorrow/Bathory indeed. Wodensthrone are more in the picture, but they didn't do a lot for me. I will check out more of the bands mentioned in this thread and if there are more of these overlooked gems, I'd love to hear about them!

Ildra is a good band. I like the frequent acoustic interludes and when they are incorporated into the metal parts (which reminds me of what Drudkh did on their early albums, the blend of acoustic and electric guitars playing simultaneously, though otherwise Ildra doesn't remind me of Drudkh). I've had the CD for several months now but this thread has inspired me to listen to it again.

Maybe more instrumentally talented but compositionally vastly inferior, and certainly less original.

Hold the phone. What's so original about Graveland to begin with? It's collection of Bathory worship with some monotonous raspy vocals.

I don't hear any similarties between Graveland and Bathory, except for the mid-paced nature of their respective epic periods.

Compositionally inferior to Graveland doesn't promise anything good. I've never been able to listen to a Graveland song in its entirety.