Obsequiae : " Aria of Vernal Tombs"

While vikings live in Minnesota it's not the first place I would think a project like this might come from. Here is an interesting bit of folk metal, that is trying to not be folk metal. I like the distant re verb drenched black metal vocals. 20-Buck Spin is pretty reliable so just because I said folk-metal doesn't mean this is any way like Trollfest, aside that it's metal. "Until Ages Fall" keeps things swinging along the same ground the first song did though it might have a more melodic edge to it's festivities. The guitars do a good job of play the same intervals a fiddle would. The acoustic passages are well played they break things up in a manner similar to what Agalloch used to do in some sense, just without the cleanly sung sections.The interludes almost outnumber the actual songs. They go for some blasting on "Pools of a Vernal Paradise". I like the tempo the vocals take to work with the epic  baroque march of the music.

This is how folk metal should go down, even though it gets a little happier as they dance around the forest on "Aniace and Heart". These more period inspired sections are off set by the heavier nature of the drums and vocals. There is much more attack to "In the Absence of Light". The guitar still has room to twiddle with their melodic single note melodies, even more so when it hits the blasty part which , kind feels like they are taking the easy way out after we have already heard them tackle songs with a more air tight artistry than just settling for what all the metal bands are doing. The album does begin to evolve into a heavier affair as it progress and the baroque melodies just happen to be layered around the metal rather than the other way around. The guitars continue to weave their majick around the assault until the blast beats come and give a more hurried feel to the song.

There is more of a classic metal feel combined with Summoning or Bathory on the closing song. The chorus even has a hook to it. The songs are very economic. They get credit for not becoming overly grandiose and turning these into fourteen minute sagas, while still retaining the expansive feel this music requires in the same way it helps to watch the Lord of the Rings movies on a large screen. This is first and foremost a guitar players album. If you play guitar and have any interest in folk metal then you would be doing yourself a disservice not to listen to this album. I'll give this one a 9. It's easy on the ears. Not sure how much actual play time this will get from me, but it's so well done