July 2020 Feature Release - The North Edition
It's now July which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. Ben & I will certainly be contributing & we look forward to hearing your thoughts too.
This month's feature release for The North is 2001's fourth album from German medieval folk metal outfit In Extremo entitled "Sünder ohne Zügel" which is generally regarded as one of the finest examples of its type. I've only recently given this one a few spins to see what the whole "medieval folk metal" thing was all about & I'll be interested to read your thoughts on a) whether this record is a good representation of this niche subgenre & b) whether this sort of release really does warrant its own sub-category.
https://metal.academy/releases/16148
I only recently heard about the "Medieval Folk Metal" subgenre & was curious to see what differentiated it from your run-of-the-mill variety of folk metal so I gave this release a few spins. Surprisingly, there's very little of anything "medieval" about this record. In fact, it sounds very clean & modern compared to most folk metal I've heard which left me pondering over whether it even qualified for the genre at all. But after several listens I came to the realization that there was just enough folk instrumentation to warrant the Folk Metal tag (particularly the regular bagpipe contributions) with the rest of In Extremo's sound being comprised mainly of Nu Metal & Alternative Metal with little bits of Progressive, Industrial & Traditional Heavy Metal tossed into mix on occasion too. The vocals of front man Das letzte Einhorn are delivered in the deep, croaky, monotonous & heavily German style of Rammstein's Till Lindemann & are written in the band's native tongue as far as I can tell.
There are 4 or 5 very good songs scattered across the tracklisting & the band was obviously quite experienced in the studio because everything sounds very clear, tight & generally pretty heavy. But sadly there are too many tracks where I find myself put off by parts that sound more like Limp Bizkit or the more generic Korn efforts than they do the better works of the largely black metal driven folk metal genre. And then we get those cheesy folk melodies. Certainly not as many as you'll find in most folk metal outings but they're there nonetheless. So overall this amounts to a record that (whilst generally well composed & executed) ultimately fits comfortably within the confines of my "none of my business" file.
3/5
I knew perfectly well that I'd be pushing shit uphill with this one but I'll be interested to hear what some of our more experienced folk metal fans think of this release. Is it a good example of the "Medieval folk metal" sound? If so, is this subgenre even worth differentiating from your traditional variety?
This is a VERY strange one since Folk Metal normally isn't paired with modern style riffs and ideas, hence the Korn comparison. Tracks like "Krummavisur" and "Nature Nous Semont" REALLY caught me off guard as they just don't sound right with the modern style of riffing, no matter how hard they try. I want to give them kudos for the attempt, but at the same time I really kind of question what they were thinking. This one just rubs me the wrong way, so I'm going to be harsher on it than even you, Daniel. My personal short answer would be no, this is not a very good representation of what Medieval Folk Metal is, even though I haven't checked out too much of it just because there isn't much of it flying around.
Medieval Folk Metal to me is just a distinction rather than a genre. It means that the kind of folk the band tends to use is Renaissance era instruments, melody, and performance ideas, meaning things like hurdy-gurdy, harpsichord, a very plucking oriented style of acoustic guitar, etc.. It's just a helpful tag to let the person know what kind of Folk Metal they're getting into, rather than its own genre with its own unique ideas, because from what I've heard there isn't exactly anything too exceptional apart from the instrument choice. You can say that the genre makes you "think of Medieval times", but that's so subjective that it's hardly worth pinning a genre on those feelings.
As for an example of Medieval Folk Metal, I was personally impressed by last year's The Palms of Sorrowed Kings by Obsequiae, a primarily Atmospheric Black Metal album with beautiful Medieval style interludes and flourishes. It's absolutely a Black Metal album first and foremost, but they do a great job of carrying the atmosphere created by the Folk portions into the shimmering Black Metal tracks that it creates that "Medieval Times" atmosphere that I alluded to before.
Also I'm curious Daniel, and this isn't meant to be a jab since I'm genuinely curious, are all folk melodies cheesy for people who don't care for Folk Metal? I ask because I saw a few comments about Nokturnal Mortum's Голос сталі saying it was the cheesiest thing they've ever heard, and I honestly don't get where they're coming from. It can get a bit over the top, sure, but I try not to instantly equate that to "cheesiness".
2/5 (The more I listened and thought about this album the more it just rubbed me the completely wrong way with what it was trying to do)
Also I'm curious Daniel, and this isn't meant to be a jab since I'm genuinely curious, are all folk melodies cheesy for people who don't care for Folk Metal? I ask because I saw a few comments about Nokturnal Mortum's Голос сталі saying it was the cheesiest thing they've ever heard, and I honestly don't get where they're coming from. It can get a bit over the top, sure, but I try not to instantly equate that to "cheesiness".
Yeah I'm afraid to say that 99% of folk melodies do sound cheesy to me when they're presented in a metal context. To be clear though, I actually quite like folk music in isolation. It's just that I have a strong preconceived notion of what metal music is supposed to be & the more uplifting & joyous feelings these melodies tend to evoke are in direct opposition to that. In fact, the only folk metal releases I've ended up enjoying over the years have been the ones that veer away from these melodies & are actually pretty borderline as to their qualification within the folk metal subgenre. Fans say that good folk metal is quite epic but I don't feel the same empowerment & crave something darker & more intimidating. I don't ever want my metal to make me feel like dancing a jig but I respect that many people enjoy this aspect of folk metal. It's really that simple.