Land of Old

There is a sense of pride that goes along with praising one's roots, it's basically the greatest draw of folk metal as a style apart from its inclination towards an accessible, infectious musical approach that mirrors the universal appeal of the ancient woodland minstrels. Lately this sense of national pride and an interest in the past has been a frequent part of the Slavic metal scene, with Ukraine offering up a fair number of younger bands that have been giving some of the older guard from Germany and the Scandinavian area a run for their money. Among the more recent entries from the borderland is a melodically tinged and pristine epic take on things in Land Of Old, offered up by a young and, to date independent band called Eldertale.

In fairly typical fashion, this band has opted for a more consonant musical approach that emphasizes lofty keyboard sounds, active guitars and a generally up tempo feel, meshed with a vocal display that is tilted more in a melodic death metal vain. Obvious outfits such as Ensiferum and Spain's own Northland come to mind as similar beast to this younger one, and to boot Eldertale finds themselves even going so far as to emulate some of the more technical guitar elements employed during the Jari Mäenpää era of the former, along with the repetitive folk melodies employed in the guitars and clean sung gang choruses. This is most apparent in the title song "Land Of Old", the longest of the pack and the most jam-packed with ambitious guitar and keyboard work. It ventures pretty close to emulating a number of signature songs off Iron and Victory Songs, with maybe a somewhat more active keyboard presence.

Truth be told, though this entire EP fails to break the 20 minute mark, the three songs contained within it all showcases a massive degree of potential that may prove to be a challenge to Ensiferum, who has been reasonably consistent but moving a bit away from their former epic glory towards a more novelty based approach comparable to Equilibrium. Both "Exile" and "Time Of Ancient" turn the clock back pretty firmly to the mid 2000s, avoiding a lot of the comical elements that have become a bit more common of late, and also tending towards a more adventurous and generally melancholy melodic feel. The whole listen just sticks consistently to the visual aesthetic of a sword-wielding tribesman drawing a line in the sand, reminiscing on olden days as a rallying cry amid a winter-stricken forest. The haggard growls of Kirill Shapovalenko, which are all but a dead-ringer for early Ensiferum, underscores this wintry visual quite tellingly, arguably more so than the highly enthralling musical content.

This is among the more ambitious and impressive independent ventures to come out of the folk metal scene of late, and despite its somewhat lower fidelity production compared to the bombastic studio LPs of their influences, Eldertale has put together a fine collection of songs that will definitely please anyone with a sweet spot for this style. It's a bit more along the lines of mainline melodic death metal with a massive keyboard overlay, thus putting it on the smoother side of the equation, despite the vocals leaning a bit more on the harsh side and it being a bit more ambitious technically speaking than what is generally heard out of Korpiklaani or Turisas. It will also hopefully be a precursor to an eventual full length studio effort where the full potential of this already impressive offering will be realized.