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Cruachan > The Morrigan's Call > Reviews
Cruachan - The Morrigan's Call

Awesome folk metal - 86%

Hawks10Pec, March 11th, 2009

Folk metal. In my opinion, one of the best genres of metal. Why? Because when you listen to folk metal you get images in your head of a lot of different things. Things like war, weapons, battle warriors, and other things of that nature. Cruachan is probably one of the best bands to listen to if you want all of that. They play folk metal mixed with a little bit of black metal. Think of Borknagar, just less a little less black metal like. This is The Morrigan's Call.

First of all, the best thing about this album is the folk instruments. You have all kinds of different things cellos, flutes, and other things like that. They also throw in some keyboards. Cruachan execute the use of the folk instruments so well that if you close your eyes, you can imagine being right in the middle of Ireland in the middle of some kind of epic battle. Believe me this is a good thing. Cruchan has two vocalists, one female and one male. The female is the more dominant one on the album singing in a operatic like voice. She reminds me of Sarah from Cradle of Filth. The male has three different kinds of vocal styles. He has a singing voice, more of a deep shouting, and then the infamous black metal shrieks. He executes them all to perfection.

As far as the guitars, bass, and drums. They really don't have that much of an impact on this album because of all the folk instruments being the center of attention. There are realy no memborable riffs or basslines that stuck out. There are some blast beats and tremelo picking when the black metal parts pick up, but thats about it. You wont be hearing any kind of killer solos on this album. This doesn't really effect the album at all though because when you hear how awesome the folk instruments and the keyboards are played, you really won't care about hearing any ripping solos or awesome basslines.

As for the individual songs, there are either the ones that mix both the extreme black metal side and the folk metal side such as Shelob and The Brown Bull of Cooley, or the straight up folk metal masterpieces like The Great Hunger and The Very Wild Rover. They also throw in an instrumental or two along the course of the album.

Overall this album is amazing. If you are in need of some folk metal with a little black metal edge, this album would be perfect. Like I said earlier, Cruachan will give you great images in your head of exactly whats going on during the album. Also, if you're Irish this album is perfect too because they do a great job of incorporating elements of their homeland into their music. That goes for the rest of their album as well.

Cruachan - The morrigan's call - 60%

Radagast, July 28th, 2007

I'll have to confess before writing this review that Cruachan are an almost completely unknown entity to me. Having never heard a note of music by the band until this CD, 'The morrigan's call', I have no basis for comparison with any of the band's previous work, be it either in their earlier black metal-inspired days or the more melodic offerings of recent years, so the CD will be looked at entirely on its own merits.

Hailing from Ireland and basing most of their lyrics on folk stories and mythology, it seems logical to expect melancholy to be the prime focus of the music and lyrics. And while this is the case some of the time, most notably in 2 of the CDs standout tracks "The great hunger" and the gloomy "Ungoliant", more upbeat themes are to be found as well, and unfortunately aren't an entirely welcome addition. Most of the vocals are now handled by Karen Gilligan, (with founder member and multi-instrumentalist Keith Fay occasionally chipping in with his black metal shriek and more sombre clean vocals), and while she is a competent singer, her sweet voice is a little bit samey to be the main focus on a metal CD.

The unexpected manoeuvre of forgoing Celtic sounds on occasion for full-blown Renaissance-faire music ends with something I've simply never heard the likes of before on a metal CD and it has to be said that it generally doesn't work. Opening track "Shelob" has the CD stumbling out of the traps as it varies with breakneck suddenness from a competent black metal song to a piece completely ridiculous in its over the top jauntiness. The best way to describe it as if Blackmore's Night had suddenly crashed the party in the middle of the song, and while there is a time and a place for Ritchie Blackmore and his troubadours, the middle of a primitive black metal song about a giant spider is neither.

However, the biggest problem with Cruchan's approach to the genre is their inability to fully mesh the 2 inherently disparate aspects of their sound together. Rather than folk and metal being blended, it often sounds as though the 2 have merely been thrown together, with many of the jauntier songs sounding more like the band had simply written a folk song and then thrown in a heavy riff to keep it 'metal enough'. The best folk metal bands use a variety of means to cross the 2 styles; using a mixture of keyboards, traditional instruments and simply lead guitar to recreate the folk melodies to go over an already in place heavy metal foundation. Cruachan manage this on certain songs on 'The morrigan's call', but on others the heavier aspect of their songs sound like a mere afterthought.

Similarly, the entirely-folk songs and interludes such as "Coffin ships", "The old woman in the woods" and the title track generally serve as distractions at best and at worst as annoyances. But all criticism aside, it has to be said that when Cruachan simply get down to writing straightforward Celtic folk metal, they can do a damn fine job of it.

"The brown bull of cooley" is the only song to feature a proper back-and-forth between the harsh and female vocals, and it stands as easily one of the best on the CD, showing that a little variety can go a long way. Their rendition of the traditional Irish song "The wild rover" is also great fun, even if it is inferior to version recorded by Tyr a few years ago. It shows Cruachan can in fact do lively and upbeat songs well enough, and it complements the moodier tracks very well. As already mentioned, these darker tracks are the real highlights, with atmosphere being the prime focus.

The CD on the whole is a decent listen, but with such a scattershot approach taken to the songwriting it is difficult to fully immerse oneself in it. When it is good it can be very good indeed, but when things go downhill they tend to nosedive. Fans of more upbeat folk metal may love this, but even as a fan of Korpiklaani's ridiculous party music I find it hard to take 'The morrigan's call' entirely seriously.

(Originally written for http://www.metalcdratings.com/)

Slightly Dissapointing - 70%

winterheathen, July 18th, 2007

There is no other band quite like Cruachan. I've been listening to them since I first heard the song "The Middle Kingdom" on an old Hammerheart records comp CD in 1998 and have been closely following their career ever since. They continued to get better and better with every album, their pinnacle being the "Pagan" album from a few years ago, so I obviously had high expectations for the Irish bands latest. Unfortunately, the album is rather hit or miss.

First, the good news. Karen sound better than she ever has before. Having transformed herself from an average vocalist to a good one, she almost singlehandedly carries the songs "The Great Hunger" and "Wolfe Tone". Not that she'll ever be confused with, for example, Floor from After Forever, though. Plus, the production is crystal clear, the benefits of being on a bigger label shining through. Songs like "Diarmuid and Grainne" "The Brown Bull of Cooley" and the aforementioned "Wolfe Tone" rank among the best in their career.

However, not all the news is great. Opener "Shelob" is incredibly annoying, sounding like something you might hear at a carnival, instead of the Celtic atmospheres they're known for. "Teir Abhaile Riu" is too long, and others, such as the title track, are too short. They also continue the irritating trend of taking old classics and re-recording them, this time with "Cuchulainn" which still kicks ass but was just as good in its original version on "Tuatha Na Gael" And their version of "The Wild Rover", while interesting, isn't nearly as entertaining as Tyr's!

Bottom line: If you like Cruachan in the past, then you can't go wrong getting this album, despite my nitpicking. If you've always hated the band, there is nothing here that'll change your mind about them.

Their best album ever? - 80%

Ancient_Minstrel, December 20th, 2006

This time Cruachan have succeeded! “The Morrigan’s Call” challenges “The Middle Kingdom” for the spot as the best Cruachan-album. Even though I cannot say that they have perfected their style yet, I think that the overall quality is rising. There are weak things on “The Morrigan’s Call”. One of those is the habit of Cruachan to include one or two almost silly songs. I am a great fan of the folky parts, but sometimes it gets too jolly. Perhaps it is only a macho Metal side of me that is speaking, but the songs “Shelob” and “The Old Woman in the Woods” suffer from this.

Another problem I have thought about in Cruachan’s earlier work is the tendency of the music to become monotonous after seven or eight songs. That is gone! They have managed to vary their song material much more on this album. The lyrics are well written, as always, and the vocals are actually the best ever from this band. I am not a great fan of Karen Gilligan’s singing, but on this album she does not sing that high-pitched all the time, which renders her a higher grade. Keith Fay also sings much better here. Earlier I have preferred his growls, but his clean vocals have really improved.

The great strength of Cruachan is, and has always been, the ability to meld the Celtic music and the Metal together. That has actually become better too. Especially the solos and musical bridges in the songs really give another dimension. The Metal music on Cruachan’s has gone from Black Metal on “Tuatha Na Gael” to Heavy Metal on “Pagan”, but here they take a step back. It is still much closer to Heavy Metal, but the dark feeling of the early albums has returned. Please, stay on this track, and deliver more of this great Folk Metal! As usual the band members are synchronized and all the instruments do their tasks with precision and skill.

The best song on here is actually the really short title track. “The Brown Bull of Cooley”, “The Great Hunger” (really sad and slow) and “Diarmuid and Grainne” are really good songs too. Some nice parts are found in the both traditional songs “Téir abhaile riú” and “The Very Wild Rover”. “Wolfe Tone” and “Cuchulainn” (which is a remake of an old song of theirs) are pretty good as well.

As a short conclusion I must say that Cruachan have produced a great album, dark and heavy but also very melodic. As usual all the instruments are great, and now when the vocals have improved, the combined quality is higher. To release the perfected Cruachan-album, they must cut the few silly melodies, keep on varying instruments and vocals, and try to make all songs as great as the best ones on their albums this far. Then I will rejoice and declare the victory of the Gaels!