By: Anders

Posted: Apr 9, 2007

The music of this band is described as Gaelic doom metal, and that might be a quite fitting phrase, even though the band has a quite good deal of heavy metal and folk-music inspirations into the blend as well.

Dark and haunting spheres are what the Mael Mordha creates, weaving the compositions in many layers, drawing the listener into older worlds, than the one we currently habitat. The riffing is harsh and direct, the electric guitar is quite distorted and raw throughout the album, greatly accompanied by acoustic guitars and the atmospheric and very rhythmically bass. The percussion offers many breaks which can be quite disturbing, especially when one isn't paying 110% attention to the music, which is needed to get the full result of this record. The use of flute and violin are excellent and add a lot to the final result, the band is actually best when they make use of folk compositions and instruments. The vocals are quite raw as well, though fitting most of the time, even though they fall out of place here and there, a more sensitive and fragile voice could have been a good alternation here and there. Though the accent is really in place and adds a great layer of authentic atmosphere onto the whole of the music's universe.

Folky heavy metallic doom is a description fitting Mael Mordha quite good in my humble opinion, if those genres or the band's previous material has been up your alley, this new album will hit it off with you as well, it's certainly worth a few listens or more, though often the mood needs to be right to get fully into the darkness of the band.

Rating: 7/10

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Kindly supplied by Grau Records

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