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Ragnarok > To Mend the Oaken Heart > Reviews
Ragnarok - To Mend the Oaken Heart

To Mend The Oaken Heart - 70%

owlbar, March 5th, 2008

I have to give this album some credit for its originality. Celtic drums, fiddle, harp, keyboards and acoustic guitars are placed alongside more traditional metal instruments (as you would expect in the folk metal genre). This isn’t so original in and of itself, but there is a sort of dark atmosphere that seems more authentically pagan than a lot of bands that go for the same feel, even if it is somewhat cheesy.

Most of the lyrics center on the destruction of pre-Christian European cultures/religions and a yearning for their return. Also, we get some Norse and Celtic mythology and even a “love song.” Unfortunately it seems like the lyrics, though well written, were created without too much thought of how they would fit into the songs. Time and time again, a lackluster riff is repeated for what seems like forever just so the vocalist can cram all of the words in. As for the music itself......

The “drums” are all programmed. Most of the time they blend in sufficiently to be ignored, but at times they are just extremely shitty sounding.

There is also a definite lack of good heavy riffs here. Some of them are awesome, like on “Samhain” (which is definitely the best song on the album and one of my favorite folk metal songs period). But the majority of the riffs on the album are forgettable.

On the positive side, in the more mellow acoustic parts the band is actually really good. There are quite a few awesome fiddle solos, and even some decent guitar solos. The bass on this album is quite excellent. There is a kickass bass solo in “Passion to A Golden Dawn.”

The vocals are a mixed bag. There is a lot of variety, though. There are some guttural sounding barks, high pitched rasps, and clean vocals. The barks are good (like a bassier Scottish Lemmy), and the clean vocals are decent. They are sometimes off key but there is some definite emotion behind them. The most prevalent style is unfortunately the high rasps, which remind me a lot more of Donald Duck than any black metal vocal I can think of.

I would only really recommend this if you like the folk side of folk metal as much as the metal side, because it (mostly) fails there. However, if you read the lyrics while listening, you might not get as bored with the watered down riffs. Also, at times the black metal vocals are just fucking hilarious, which is a plus in my book. And if you can download this or find it cheap I’d say it’s worth it just for “Samhain” (Japanese version only) and “Passion to A Golden Dawn.”