Crog Buidhe

Lyrically: This album is a concept album based on a medieval storyline similar in style to Tolkien about a hero named Conall. While I would consider myself a fan of story concept albums, I think the one on this album is a bit of a hit and miss. While the writing style and vernacular are really spot on, I found that the storyline was obfuscated by the fact that the story was really two stories. What I mean by that is that it starts out with the boys having killed royalty and are together with their father on a search for a steed to clear their name, but then another story of another kingdom with another king is told. To me it would seem that it would have been much more effective if the entire outlying story of their search for the steed were left out as I think it made it a little bit to complicated. The story, however, is well written and fairly enjoyable; kind of a mix between Beowulf and the Canterbury Tales. Overall, I like it.

Musically: Some albums take a few listens before they really can be ingested, enjoyed, and appreciated. This, to me, was one of those albums. Though I must say that after a number of listens that this album has most certainly grown on me and has left quite a different taste in my mouth then it did upon my initial listen.

The music itself is black metal defined by some serious blast beats, over toned-to-death guitar, and vocals that almost leave you with the taste of vomit and the inkling of pain in your throat. It is not overproduced, nor does it sound like it was recorded with someone's tape deck.

Negatives: First, I am not a big fan of the guitar/drum interaction at times (listen to the sample of the first track to understand what I mean). The slow, almost doom like, prodding of the guitar with the ferocious beats behind create a gut reaction of two forces working against each other; one trying to speed things up and the other slowing things down. Once I listened to it a few times it began to become apparent that it is exactly what it is; these two forces. In the midst of it all, they create a mesh of opposing forces that drives the songs on. While I certainly gained an appreciation for it, I still just don't much like it.

Secondly, I don't like the vocals he used for the king's quotes. I couldn't understand them at all and it was almost hard to tell if there was anything being said at all; even when I had the lyric sheet right next to me.

Last, I thought the album was a bit monotonous. While there were some rhythm/timing changes in the album, and I think vocally he did an awesome job, musically the album just didn't really grab my attention as much as it could have. This, however, is mostly because it is, by definition, black metal and black metal that doesn't have other instrumentation or doesn't incorporate other sub-genres of metal into it tends to sound that way to me.

Positives: First, the vocals. Apart from those few moments of king quotes, the vocals are absolutely spot on. Honestly I don't know how he does it as it hurts my throat just listening to it. Kind of an "I can't decide if I have a sore throat or have to defecate!".

Secondly, apart from the above mentioned musical aspects, the whole album. The album is absolutely top notch and spot on to what a black metal album should be. It has all the necessary trademarks. If you like black metal, I would highly recommend you give this album a listen.

Songs: My favorite is "Island Lost in Mist" - the opening of this song almost takes my breath away, and wish they'd have done a whole song like that with that more slow, prodding, orchestral sound.

Lyrically: 7/10
Musically: 9/10
Overall: 8.5/10