Winterfylleth - The Mercian Sphere (2010)^{Release ID: 8139}

A nice solid album of black metal in the Norwegian tradition with strong folk music elements from this UK band. I must admit that I was really loving "The Mercian Sphere" for the first three tracks. There was great atmosphere & a real darkness which reminded me of classic Darkthrone. Then the folk parts start to get more attention. I must admit that I've never been a huge fan of the folk/metal crossover but in this case the folk is kept separate from the metal for the most part & is extremely well done. The acoustic guitar pieces are generally of a much lighter atmosphere but sound very professional. In fact, the whole album sounds very professional. The production is just right i.e. just raw enough to maintain authenticity as well as clean enough so that everything is sitting comfortably in the mix. Towards the second half of the CD the dark atmosphere starts to drift a bit which was a bit disappointing after the earlier classic black metal feel of tracks like album highlight "The Fields Of Reckoning" which is both timeless & purely evil. A very good album that should turn a few heads.