Winterfylleth - The Hallowing of Heirdom

Black metal - ambient noises, hellish landscapes, evil imagery, and often very poor production value to sound as "natural" as possible. Nothing wrong with it I guess, just never really my cup of coffee, even though I do love black coffee.

This isn't a black metal album though... but it's done by a black metal band. What is it you might ask? It's a classical, folk... poetry album I guess. No screaming, no double bass, no breakdowns. It's written like musical art from hundreds of years ago - classical guitar, violins, timpani's, and most of the lyrics are actually poetry, and delivered almost operatically.

If I explain anymore, I'll just be doing the review in the intro. Let's dive in.

Again, metal band, not a metal album. The thing that caught me here was the album cover of the tree and mountains. I thought I was getting into some melodic metal kind of treat, and instead, I was greeted to the sounds of classical instrumentation. I thought maybe... this is just a transition track or something, but no. The whole album is like this.

This definitely isn't a "shocker" type album at all. You're not going to find giant complex structures, massive epic journeys, nor extremely technical playing. What you will find is songs that capture a feeling, usually that of sorrow, some of joy, some of reflection. All the instruments play their own part, often trading off melodies. They tend to build atmosphere and melodies poke out at just the right times. Most of the tracks are laid out in a format that functions more like a story than a song. It's got the ebbs and flows of a short film. All the songs give a ton of room for breathing. Giving you just enough to catch onto things, but a little bit more things that you won't notice on first listen, but notice on subsequent runs.

Normally... I'd talk about drums here. However, there is no drum kit. Instead there are timpani's, maybe a few other percussive elements. As in an orchestral setting, they are used for emphasis and mood, rather than rhythm and lock.

Vocals here are more an instrument than a delivering mechanism, or the focal point of the record. There are many songs that don't have any at all. Their singing is rather folky, layers of vocals as if they are singing in a chorus of people. Other times, there's a little less, but rather they make sound that go along with the instrumentation rather than actual lyrics. The "ah's" and "oo's" that create smooth texture on top of instruments.

On first listen, I loved the lyrics. All the old school "thy" and "thee" language and what not, they sounded almost poetic in nature... after actually attempting to Google some of their lyrics, turns out they ARE poetry put to music. Most of them drawn from poets, stories, and legends. I didn't really do a whole lot of research, but I remember digging into a few of them. It's interesting... because these are English (I think?) folktales and poetry, stuff I've never heard of being from America.

The opening track describes pretty much what appears like a wedding. Elder Mother describes what appears to be a group of folks traveling to a lady to determine whether or not someone is the king of England. One of my favorites is in the Hallowing of Heirdom. I actually have it up on my wall, and I'll share the lyrics, because I love the chorus lines

So who are we now? A horde of their ghosts... or oaks that were acorns from the tree of their hopes?

I don't know. Maybe I am just fascinated by poetry, but words are rather impactful in my opinion. It's lines like this I would think about 50 years from now in my old age.

The whole album is packed with stuff like this. The Nymph as well.

Could youth last and love still breed
Had joys no date, nor age, nor need
These delights my mind might move
To by thy love

When folks say that some bands caught "lightning in a bottle" - this is one of those for me. I thought FOR SURE I'd find music similar to this if I searched hard enough, but it appears to be one of a kind. There are some that are really classical, some that are really folk-like, and others that just sound more indie than anything else.

Here's the thing though; I don't think anyone other than a metal band could've done this. It's the metal musicians that tend to be hyper insightful, have wacky ideas, and like to bring things to life. The more I thought about it... it's modern classical music with a touch of English folk - an oxymoron I know, but it's the best way I could describe it.

I would love for anyone to listen to this, but whoever I've shown this too... it's a bit too nerdy or bizarre for most folks, but it hits something nice within my soul. It's too classical for your average listener, to poetic for your average indie folk, not heavy enough for the metal guys, so... who's this for? I don't know my friend. Me probably. The first track has over a million plays... but none of the other tracks cross 500k. My guess is songs like The Hallowing of Heirdom at 143k listens, I am willing to bet over the last 8 years, probably 3-5k of those are mine. So there's at least a few out there that love this.

It's my go to album for when I need calm. For when I need to close my eyes and listen away the world. Sing along with beautiful poetry and reflect on life. I hope maybe it will be one of y'all's too.