| Product: |
Wigand - Adorned Brood |
| Date: |
27/10/07 (92 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Interesting and dogmatic take on the folk metal genre.
Disadvantages: Becomes repetitive and dull fairly quickly, winding up discordant more often than harmonious.
‘Wigand’ is the second album from German folk metal band Adorned Brood, and seems to be generally considered by their small but loyal fan base to be their finest work. Incorporating a significant folk influence into their otherwise standard black metal sound, including prominent flutes, acoustic guitar and light percussion, listening to the album really gives the impression that it was recorded by travelling minstrels in a Rheinland forest sometime in the middle ages, convincing in all but the tell-tale electric guitars. Such a specialist and distinctive style of music is bound to be an acquired taste, and although I have listened to enough odd metal from across Europe to prepare me for Adorned Brood’s eccentricity, they unfortunately left me feeling unsatisfied. Folk-influenced black metal has been around for a significant time, particularly in the Swedish Viking metal scene, and although these Germans’ take seems rather interesting and overly dedicated at first, the repetitive sound and jarring elements make it a rather tedious chore to sit through these overlong compositions in one listen.
Adorned Brood are talented musicians, but far from being virtuosos, and the somewhat amateurish sound, while enjoyable, is also betrayed by the poor quality of the lyrics. Repeated themes of swords and battles with the occasional tip of the hat to Odin and his brethren present the standard, unsurprising folk metal subject matter, but it’s all too clear that the band’s grasp of the English language is far from fully developed. The use of broken English in the first half of the album is especially confusing even beyond the grammatical level, as this band’s primary audience will undoubtedly be in their homeland and those countries to the North-East, and folk-influenced black metal is perhaps the most common genre in which native language is encouraged, as it adds to the authentic, back-to-the-roots sound the bands are trying to go for. Bizarrely, the album shifts to German language half-way through and the lyrics become far more substantial and detailed, even if the themes are still a little redundant, inviting the obvious question of why it wasn’t kept German all the way through; it’s not as if the vocals, which are mainly growled, are understandable anyway.
Adorned Brood’s line-up has never been quite stable, and this was the last outing for several members of the original band. Frontman Teutobot Frost plays bass guitar, which is hardly audible in the typical fuzzy production, and his vocals follow the typical folk metal formula of inhuman-sounding black metal growls interspersed with more harmonious deep singing. Mirko “Pagan” Klier is joined by newcomer Andreas (replacing Oberon) on guitars, which are kept at natural standard tuning but fuzzed out once again by the production, and although this duty mainly requires speeding along with a repetitive riff in the majority of songs, there are a few interesting deviations, original riffs and fine acoustic touches to make the guitars the stand-out instrument of the piece. Mike “Ariovist” Engelmann provides both blasting black metal drums and the lighter percussion, and is adept enough to very between fast metal assaults and a slower tempo when required in this final outing with the band, while newcomer Ingeborg Anna really makes her presence felt in providing a few pleasant female vocals and a very dominant lead flute, which stands out clearly in the mix and is the main ingredient in nearly all songs to keep this distinctly ‘folk’ as well as metal.
1. Völüspa
2. The Way of the Sword
3. Spiritual Weaponry
4. Wapen
5. The Oath
6. Wigand
7. Zeichen von Zauberkraft
8. Jord Dvalin
I enjoy folk influenced metal, but for the most part this album sounds like rather bland nineties black metal attempting to set itself apart through the dominant presence of flutes. The only song that really stands out as a perfect meeting of the two genres is the excellent title track, which pulls out all the stops in featuring interesting and enjoyable guitar riffs and lead sections, interspersed with effective folk sections that don’t act as a distraction, and moving organically towards a nice ending led out by alternating male and female vocals. There’s a great deal of energy present in this song that is unfortunately lacking elsewhere in the recording after the opening song ‘The Way of the Sword’ (after the brief introductory track), which showcases everything that works about the band as well as demonstrating the limitations and problems with its sound. The shift from folk to metal in this song is all too sudden, with very obvious seams as the electric guitar kicks in and diffuses the pleasant atmosphere almost entirely, although the chirpy flute playing over the depressing, infernal din is a satisfyingly unusual audio experience that soon becomes quite old and repetitive as the album moves on.
The other major problems with these songs apart from the tedium and incompatibility of elements is the unjustified average length, as the tracks range from at least six minutes to nearly eleven after the afore-mentioned ‘The Way of the Sword’ which restricts itself to five. This music is largely about atmosphere and thus the length doesn’t always present an issue, but there are several instances where it really feels like the song should have concluded some time ago. The worst offender is ‘Wapen,’ the longest song on the album and one that fails to do anything remotely interesting with its allotted time span, even pausing for no reason at several points towards the end with a ‘false’ ending before the cheap sound effects of battle fade back in with unprofessional clumsiness and the guitar riffs return once more. The same thing happens with the next-longest piece, the penultimate ‘Zeichen von Zauberkraft’ which is far too repetitive, before a very confusing turnaround sees its successor ‘Jord Dvalin’ do the exact opposite, packing far too many style shifts and changes into ten minutes to make any kind of coherence whatsoever, even making me question whether this song was cobbled together from a set of unused ideas that couldn’t be incorporated into the others.
There is a general lack of professionalism throughout this whole album, which doesn’t present a major problem in terms of its small target audience, and does endear it to me somewhat, but the quality of songwriting is unfortunately reflective of the low budget. The folk elements are all quite nice, but become very similar-sounding after the first couple of songs, when Ingeborg Anna has done her best Ian Anderson flute impersonation and doesn’t really know what to do with herself any longer. The black metal is even more repetitive and dull, making the lengthier folk sections and entirely folk songs such as ‘The Oath’ the more entertaining parts of the album, generally speaking. Black metal fans will be irritated by the flutes and soft singing, while folk fans will obviously be scared back into the woods when encountering the harsh black metal on their travels, and even those who enjoy both in the music of bands such as Bathory, Månegarm and Týr will be used to folk metal of a significantly higher standard, where you can’t audibly hear the flute player taking a gasp of air before every melody. ‘Wigand’ is recommended only for folk metal/black metal fans who are curious about the incorporation of flute as a major instrument in place of lead guitars, but apart from the cool title track that uses all the band’s best ideas, there’s very little of interest after the first tenth of the album is over and done with.
Summary: Adorned Brood's second album (1998).
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