solitarius
Great folk from Switzerland, a very odd thing, folk from the alps? Never heard of it before, or at least not good one. This band was formed in 2002, mixing Folk Metal with Melodic Death Metal, and they have done it amazingly, first with their first LP called "Spirit" and now with this masterpiece called "Slania", which actually does not mean a thing, is the name of a girl who live 2500 years aho in the alps, and the members of the band found it good enough to entitle their album like that.
Besides the mixing of the Metal styles, they also mix several instruments, as you can see above in the members section, but that is not all, they all sing in...english? NO, german? NO, some scandinavian language? NO....they sing in gaulish! This is done in order to sound more celtic, yes, MORE celtic, haha.
The music is fast, hard, and at some points, as folk is supossed to be, danceable, the voice of Chrigel is deep and loud, perfectly fitting with the music, in the track "Slanias song" Meri does some vocals, Meri being female, and those mix perfectly too, along with Chrigel's.
One last point is the artwork of this album, I do not know who made it, but thanks to the great job she/he have done I fell in love with this album, I bought it just because of the artwork! It's lovely, dark, tender, folk, antique, it is everything the music of Slania is. I, being a designer, always pay attention to this kind of things, and this might sound very geek from my part, but the title "Slania" in the cover is a typography called Papyrus, a horrible one, my teachers tell me never to use it, and well, here it is and looks beautiful, giving more credit to the designer.
If you are into this new wave of Folk Metal bands, you are going to love this one, trust me...again.
Highlights: Primordial Breath, Inis Mona, Slanias Song, and Elembivos