Adorned Brood - Hiltia

As promised, here's Adorned Brood's amazing debut album, Hiltia.
I said I might explain this album better in the previous post about this band. I have decided against it, but I'll say this: it's quite simply full of really cool riffs, and the folk bit seems well thought out; it fits in perfectly with the harsher black metal sound. Unlike the way I perceive many of these so-called folk metal bands who really play black metal with "folk" instruments here and there, the melodies are a very nice complement to the awesome metal, and it sounds purposeful, not like the bursts of not very memorable black metal other bands seem accustomed to play.
I say the more straight-forward metal bits here are also often quite reminiscent of thrash metal

Definitely, this would interest fans of black metal, viking metal and folk metal of the harsher variety, but the awesome riffs and melodies are enough to please most metal fans.

Adorned Brood - Hiltia

Tracklist:

1. Intro
2. For Honour And Land
3. Hiltia
4. Unehrenhaftes Feindesblut
5. Furor Teutonicus
6. Donerhamer
7. Undisclosed Treasures of The Mortal
8. Adora
9. Kissing The Heathen Amulet
10. Die Rede Des Erhabenen
11. Outro

Adorned Brood - Heldentat

Today I'm gonna post 2006's Heldentat, the fifth album by Adorned Brood. I was introduced to this German band by a very special girl in my life sometime around 2007 or '08, and quickly became a fan of their first album, Hiltia, released in 1996, three years after the band formed.

The band's style was a different form of blackened folk metal, like most folk metal bands outside Spain, apparently. It was different because while the black metal influence was very big, it was very atypical... it was rather "musical", in my opinion. Perhaps when I post that album in the near future I'll find a better explanation.

I only acquired this one roughly a year ago, and only really discovered a few months after. This album, by contrast, features a style of folk metal that was very little to do with black metal. The vocals are mostly clean (and includes female vox), the distorted guitars, when used, have a very different down-tuned sound and play another type of riffs altogether, and the "metal" comes from short, explosive outbursts or just said guitars following a melody/harmony or playing a simple riff, rather than being an essential element.
The "folk" side of it remains similar, although it carries a lot more weight now than it did in Hiltia. It should be noted that, for their folk sound, they only use acoustic guitars and a flute. Nothing more.
Also, unlike previous albums where only one or two songs weren't in English, this is almost entirely sung in German.

In conclusion, if you want something a little bit different, or if you're a fan of folk metal (including the non-black metalish bands, like Skyclad, Mägo de Oz or Saurom Lamderth), this is for you.
Also, if your mates are into metal and drinking, there is a great alcohol anthem here (7 Tage Lang)!

Adorned Brood - Heldentat

Tracklist:

1. Es Ist Zeit... [It Is Time...]
2. Tanze Mit Dem Tod [Dance of Death]
3. In Vitro [Within Glass*]
4. Farewell
5. Sandmann [Sandman]
6. Der Albtraum [The Nightmare]
7. 7 Tage Lang [7 Days Long]
8. Tierra del Fuego [Land of Fire**]
9. Gezeichnet [Signed]
10. Felidae
11. Heldentat [Feat]
12. ...Sie Ist Erwacht [...She Is Awakened]

Text between [ ] represents the translation of the titles.
* = Translation from Latin.
** = Translation from Spanish.

Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

Primordial is a folk/black metal band from Skerries, Ireland, formed in 1987 but not really active until 1991.
They play a rather distinct form of music... it's not the sound that comes to mind when one reads/hears something like a "combination of folk and black metal." That sounds like cliché black metal with the folk influence here and there... I could name a hundred bands. Not necessarily bad, but I find Primordial's take on that set of words very refreshing indeed.
This band creates special atmospheres. I cannot describe them obectively, or by anything resembling objectivity. I won't make an attempt at ranting about it, because I don't feel like it today; but I'll just say, this is music I can get lost in, let my mind wander off...
In conclusion; if I had to describe this band and album in a few words, I'd go with: epic (overused at as it may nowadays), somber, atmospheric, sincere, intelligent, persistent. Great lyrics and amazing musical atmosphere that flows underterred.

Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

Tracklist:

1. Empire Falls
2. Gallows Hymn
3. As Rome Burns
4. Failures Burden
5. Heathen Tribes
6. The Rising Tide
7. Traitors Gate
8. No Nation On This Earth