Pagan

Cruachan is, in my opinion, a great band. They don't show it here! This album, Pagan, is probably their weakest efforts. That's disappointing, especially compared to Tuatha Na Gael and The Middle Kingdom.

The problem is not in the music itself. A lot of the tracks, individually, are very good or interesting. Pagan, the title track, is phenomenal and one of the songs that got me into metal music in the first place. However, they songs do not gel together. You may think that having fiddles mixed with traditional heavy metal would sound interesting, which to a certain extent it is, but the band do not pull it off very well.

There's a lot of chugging and palm muting on the guitars with a vocalist trying to sounds aggressive (but failing miserably at it, the female vocals sound a lot better on other Cruachan albums) with pipes and fiddles - it may just be me not being used to such music, but it just sounds stupid. These folk elements are either really prominent, such as in 1014 AD, or really weak as in Ard Ri Na Heirann - you can barely even hear them. There's no middle ground at all. In addition to this, there are 2 pure folk songs, 2 folky black metal songs and a lament. They're just scattered throughout the album with no rhyme or reason involved. The album, as a result, is incoherent and makes very little sense. Cruachan, on this album, seemed to not have had their mind made up on what kind of music they wanted to produce and instead they did a bit of everything. Which really is a shame, because other bands such as Arkona or Eluveitie that were probably inspired by this band pull off the folk metal a lot better.

Is this album total rubbish? No, because there are a few standout tracks - Pagan, the title song, springs immediately to my mind. This is when the clouds part, dolphins leap out of the water, an angel gets its wings and a choir of young boys appear from the heavens. It's fantastic - it starts out with a Gregorian chant before breaking into a fantastic riff in 12/8 time which is unusual for a song in a pop/rock album. The female vocals are also spot on - it's enchanting, just as it should be. The band's rendition of the Lord's Prayer is great as well. For example, the first line of the prayer is: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be our name". It was replaced with "Our Father who art in heaven, corruption be your name". It's imaginative and provides a great break. The other track is The Fall of Gondolin, which is in many respects similar to Pagan, but not as interesting musically and if you've read Tolkien's Silmarillion you'll know the premise of the lyrics. It is, however, supported by great folk instrumentation from the fiddles and pipes. Unfortunately, these two tracks appear in the beginning and in the end. It's almost as if the band wanted you to listen to the pile of crap between the two good tracks. This is probably the only band that I know of that has managed to make me hate good tracks.

So I've managed to turn the only good point about the entire album into a bad one. My advice? Avoid this album. If someone gives it t you as a present, slap them. If you have to accept it, ask for the receipt and exchange it for anything else the band has produced. But photocopy the booklet, it's quite nice.