The Celtic Metal Thread

Heol Telwen - "An deiz ruz" (2005)

So in the interests of ensuring the continued expansion of my knowledge of all things metal, I decided to give a release labelled as Celtic metal a go so that I could find out what it's all about. From my understanding (& feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), the subgenre is essentially just folk metal that utilizes traditional Celtic instruments like bagpipes, whistle, fiddle, flute, bodhrán & hurdy gurdy. The record I selected was the only album from French outfit Heol Telwen entitled "An Deiz Ruz" & I have to say that it was a real struggle for me to get through. The band are certainly decent musicians & composers & I think they'd make for a very reasonable black metal band given that the basis for this music is built on black metal. But the continued use of folky flute melodies & the gang vocal "Hey!" parts make it almost impossible for me to take it all seriously. I'm not a fan of most folk metal but I think Celtic metal might be even further away from my personal tastes.

2/5

Any of our members love this stuff? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this album & the subgenre in general. Please feel free to use this thread for continued discussion on the subgenre moving forwards.