Tráth na Gaoth

This is an EP of Celtic-influenced pagan melodic BM from Italy. Sounds promising? Well, not to me either, so at least my expectations weren't too high to begin with. This 7(!) man band has also a full-lenght album out which I've yet to hear, but now to these three songs at hand.

The first song starts with a calm, introductory part and immediately attention is drawn to the bad, plastic sound. Music such as this needs more organic production. That could be excused if things wouldn't go much more awry the moment the song properly begins. The awful drumming has been triggered to death, it sounds a bit like Nicholas Barker on a very bad day. The guitars sound powerless and quite tinny, vocals are forgettable hoarse half-screams, the clear female vocal is okayish but cannot save the song. There are calm interludes that help little. To make matters worse the song goes on for over seven minutes. It's like a mix between half-assed BM version of Skyclad and a poorly performed COF rip-off. Next please!

The second song "Laoidhan Fogharach Na Dubhacha" starts slowly building atmosphere until a voice starts reciting something uncomprehensible in Gaelic I suppose while the synth and acoustic guitars in the background give a soundtrackish feel to the whole affair. The song proceeds to section with flute and stringed instruments (that would be synths I'm sure) and birdsong and water samples, making the whole affair more like an intro (midtro?) than a proper song.

The last song starts with keys, surprise, surprise, joined eventually by acoustic guitars, voice and percussion which sounds kind of ok. Until it kicks off really. Again the faster drumming sounds terrible and the guitars and synths don't do much better either. It's just not working. It sounds a little better when things calm down a bit and the girl sings for a bit, followed by the coarse voice male voice. That bit was actually ok (if it had a better sound) but the follow up features again more tempo and things go downhill again with stupid synth parts, weak guitar and awful drums. I cannot really recommend this, it's definitely not my music. Go rather listen to Cruachan or Gaesa or something like that.