Sidh

About twenty years ago there was an inexplicable explosion of folk metal. Every guy in Europe who owns a fucking glockenspiel started a metal band overnight and in about two weeks every last damn one of 'em was smeared across a cover of Terrorizer magazine.

Now it has been nearly [to the day] eight years since this album was released, back when the whole folk metal era started to diminish. I would consider this it's last stand. It's always somewhat sarcastically funny albeit interesting to learn when a band creates the sound of another country while not being natives of said country. Such is the case of Bran Barr [without getting into too many specifics, historians believe these people migrated from countries east of France]. They come from France but their sound is one hundred percent Irish/Celtic. 'Profedïez' is the best example.

I lied. Truthfully, the explosion is explicable. It is the use of what we here refer to as non-metal instrumentation. Woodwinds and antiquated stringed instruments, as well as horns and percussion, are employed to give the listener a true taste of the stylistically Celtic folk elements. So, for a Celt-Franc band there are plenty of flutes, Uilleann pipes, tin whistles and even Bombard just to keep things interesting.

Let me cut to the chase. This album is vast. Each song is a world of rolling green hills abreast with blasting blackened riffs, wrist-snapping speed metal fury, and good old-fashioned chugging. Of course, as is the case with most folk metal, song after song is adorned with the aforementioned non-metal instrumentation. 'Celebration - Son of Nuadh Amhach' gives you everything you want in engaging melodic-folk-fucking-metal.

However, this is really a fantastic listen from beginning to end. A beautiful job is done on the production; even as the distorted chords come crashing back in you are still able to hear the flecked acoustic strings that started us off. Exceptional lead guitar work is littered throughout. Dual harmonized guitars blend effortlessly with the higher notes of the native instruments. All the while the clean chorus of your friendly neighborhood pub drunkenly sing along in the background.

Songwriting is the main factor as to why this album deserves this score. All the elements I've mentioned are found in each song. Also most of these tracks breach the five minute mark. Therefore, expertise in song arrangements make all the difference. What's left to be said is that my mere words would only demonstrate a large injustice to the notes that will be sure to echo throughout your head. The absolute apex of this epic record is: 'Journey - The Grand Quest for the Magical Acorn.'

Get your magic acorn now.

Recently, I have discussed black metal based folk metal with other folk metal enthusiasts. I always come back to this album. We have heavy metal based folk metal like Skyclad and a lot of German bands with German lyrics . Thrash metal based folk metal by Metsatoll. Death metal based folk metal by old Ensiferum, Arkona, Cruachan, Manegarm and Leshak, here-under also all the "Troll" bands. Epic symphonic folk metal like Kampfar and Suidakra. A very particular blend, and perhaps the most interesting one, is folk black metal, as played by Bathory, Moonsorrow, Ilbeltz, Nerthus, and Bran Barr.

Bran Barr is my perfect example, because they do both folky parts and black metal parts to the fullest extent. This creates an amazing contrast between the warm folk interludes, played on real acoustic instruments, and harsh cold sounding black metal blast beat passages with high pitched raspy black metal growls. On top of that they have the folk instruments and backing choirs playing on top of the harsh black metal passages, and they have mid-paced buildup passages leading up to those blasting parts.

The style of folk is Celtic, which not surprisingly means that the folk tunes are catchy and repetitive Celtic arpeggios, but in order to not make it boring a song consists of many of such patterns. The songs are built with a more epic structure with movements, where the Celtic patterns move in and out of the story. They also employ heartbreaking melodies to break the repetitive patterns and clean front vocals to emphasize their best melodies.

My favorite song on the album, and it competes to be my favorite song of all time, is Rebirth - Morgan's Gift to Righ Sidh, which starts with the most beautiful bombard tune on acoustic guitars, followed by clean male vocal that I find myself singing out loud at random times, building up to raspy black metal glory, with the voice turning gradually more raspy.

Sadly, many folk metal bands aren't so good at making good music. They often make boring and simple songs with two repeating riffs, add some keyboard atmosphere, and that's about it. On the other hand, there are rare bands with members who KNOW about music and make outstanding albums that real folk instruments, not keyboards, are used. Those real artists aren't satisfied with two repeating riffs, but with a whole range of melodies and chords. One of these bands is Bran Barr.

Sidh is an album Bran Barr should be very proud of. They have done a great job with this release, shown in its professionalism and complexity. They don't rely on atmosphere like many folk metal bands usually do, but on complex structures and folksy melodies. The album's mood is fast, energetic, and very colorful. You'll not find any "riff recycling" here as each song is a work of art of its own. The songs are interesting, dynamic, and you never get bored in the middle of one. Even the harsh black metal vocals and drums can't make you forget that what you're listening to is pure quality folk metal. We're not talking about a Kampfar-like black metal here, we're talking about mindblowing Celtic warrior music with screaming and distorted guitars.

Les Chroniques de Naerg can never even come close to the level of both production quality and creativity of Sidh. Bran Barr put much more effort into this album and the results are just perfect. It's just impossible not to like this brilliant work of art.

I have moderate experience when it comes to Celtic black metal. I certainly know that I prefer Celtic music when it’s thrown together with Pagan themes and not folk but, this band, named Bran Barr, are an exception to the rule. ‘Sidr’, the sophomore full-length, is my first experience of this wildly varied French band. Bran Barr are apparently from an area in Brittany which clings onto her heritage, in an attempt not to lose all traces of it. Through the medium of Celtic black metal, France is keeping in touch with some of her roots and this style of black metal is one I can adhere to if it were not for the over-the-top, fun-loving folk sections. Bran Barr however, are not a band who live so relentlessly in the Celtic world as there are sections of the instrumentation which don’t include many traces of folk at all. Of course, these parts are spread intermittently throughout the album and don’t come in huge chucks. The stylistic approach definitely aims to find a balance between the two differing styles and does manage to do so successfully, but there are troubles along the way, though ‘Sidr’ can hardly be claimed to be amongst the worst albums in this field.

I used to be a big fan of Belenos, another French Celtic influenced band, when I first discovered black metal but time has not treated Belenos’ earliest albums well. ‘Sidr’ is a much different type of Celtic metal to Belenos brand though. Belenos mix Pagan themes into their musical scope, too, whilst Bran Barr mix folk. Thankfully however, the folk side to Bran Barr isn’t as overwhelming as I had initially expected. ‘Celebration - Son of Nuadh Amhach’ is a song I had expected to be upbeat given the nature of the song title. It’s a celebration, after all. The song is moderately upbeat, but nothing like I’ve experienced with some folk bands who’re sickeningly sweet and too much for my stomach to handle. There isn’t a constant stream of folk pouring out onto the listener, drowning them in a sea of happy-happy-joy-joy folk sections. Songs like ‘Fury - Exile of the Orphan’ breaks down into a variety of sections which showcase this well.

This song uses a competent wind instrument section which supplies the brunt of the folksy elements, but it also has a prolonged period where the black metal overrides the folk and the evolution of the song can be completed without hindrance. There are occasions of confusion, particularly towards the end of the song when some really high pitched screams are added to the mixture in the form of those infamous Bayusik vocals for bands like Night Conquers Day and Tearstained. The screams are pitiful, they are laughable and they don’t add anything even remotely tasteful to the songs conclusion but, thankfully, this is the only time they feature on the song and it’s only ever briefly and in the distance, rather than an in-your-face addition to the song, which would have spoiled the good work of the solos beforehand and the general well formed instrumentation and atmosphere previous to it. ‘Passage - The Curse of the Manimal’ is a more traditional slice of Celtic music. The wind instruments are accompanied by acoustics and what I imagine must be the Irish Bodhrán.

Although this song is completely instrumental, it adds an authenticity to Bran Barr’s themes of nature, medieval history and mythology. These themes are central to the album and whilst the vocals are not spouting the lyrical themes, the instrumentation must be confident enough to supply the themes by themselves and, on songs like this, they are. This instrumental leads well into the next song, a beautifully, rather melancholy affair on ‘The Call - Gathering The Tribes’, which reminds me of war-based movies about how the Irish and Scottish legions fought for independence and freedom. The song has a much more mature, focused sound on it than most of the others. The wind instruments are tamed by the rasps of the vocalist, which are competent enough, and the atmosphere is much more subdued than normal. It feels inspired by actual events in Celtic history, so the band are putting on a respectful show by not blasting their way through the song without much thought to the history behind their music.

The song writing on songs like this is as good as it gets for ‘Sidr’. The rest of the material is certainly good, but never really hits these glorious, natural heights again. The layering is sublime. Layers of guitars, solos, drums, wind instruments and even a mixture of clean chants and rasps. The album moves on from this solemn affair to try to regain the fast moving sound it had before, but it never feels as affective, although I do enjoy the cleaner sections of instrumentation and vocals, like those that appear on ‘Rebirth - Morgan's Gift to Righ'Sidh’. ‘Sidr’ eventually comes to its conclusion after just under an hour, which perhaps feels a bit too long, and can be largely viewed as a success in song writing and experimentation with sounds, textures and historical content. I imagine, for fans of the band, although I’ve not heard the debut, that this album was worth the long wait it took to release after it was initially planned for a 2007 release.