Folk metal is something quite common these days, but good folk metal is rare as ever it was, but with this album Cruachan really did master it near to perfection. Perhaps because they found these middle grounds that most other ignore is why they pull of what many other can't, it would appear that most is either bad pseudo black metal with pagan lyrics, or all out soft folk with the occasional metal touch, both of which work like crap, and then we come back to the middleground so often ignored which is where Cruachan lays, it is not soft to almost disqualify it self as metal, nor is it lo-fi black metal to almost disqualify itself as folk. This really sets you dreaming back to forgotten times, you can nearly feel yourself setting foot on the green island where this was created, you can quite clearly get a sense of the spirit that has made them struggle to be whole for many a year past, this is quite simply one of the finest peices of folk metal ever created...

© 2000 sharund