August 4, 2010

Reviewer: Chris

Austria tosses its hat into the arena of folk metal with Heathen Foray, a five-piece celebrating its first album in The Passage, an album steeped in folk metal tones, yet harboring a death metal undertow throughout. If nothing else it makes its presence known with some heavy, albeit familiar music that can entertain newcomers to the genre while possibly leaving a few old-school fans a bit bored.

While many bands of this caliber have made themselves known in recent months, very few have serious staying power with lackluster, blueprint music that fails to inspire or elevate the listener. As with any genre or sub-genre the milieu becomes diluted; it’s the natural order of things I imagine. With that in mind I found that Heathen Foray is very much this formulaic blueprint but doesn’t sound too bad considering. I can name twenty bands with this sound from which I’m still trying to get rid of the audio stench while very few have garnered any real credibility. As I say, there is nothing but formula here, but it’s a quite decent album.

The Passage houses some very interesting lyrics; “Fortress of Faith” is a track worthy of taking into battle with its power chord assault amidst its very Nordic sounding folk aura. With vocals somewhat akin to Mikael Akerfeldt’s growl (or insert any vocalist that uses this style), concise and sincerely fitting, the melodic twist to this death-metal-folk hybrid is one that is also sprinkled however lightly with the power metal sound of the current era. These little marriages don’t alter the enjoyment factor for The Passage by any means. Moreover, the album is a fun little experiment that, while seemingly the Flavor-of-the-Week today, works okay if you can find a similar resonance in a second offering; therein lays the challenge. For a first effort these guys didn’t do a bad job, considering the very heavy chainmail they’re adopting that has seen many a musical warrior fall beneath its well-worn veneer.

“Chants” is a good track, along with “Dragon’s Eyes” and “Fortress of Faith”. While I can see many hardcore fans of this genre not initially taking to Heathen Foray’s entry into the Viking metal game, they shouldn’t necessarily be dismissed as easily. While there isn’t a tremendous amount of footing to be gained in terms of rising to the top of the folk metal heap, there is an entertainment level that shouldn’t be totally ignored either because there are definitely worse bands out there making the same type of music to a much lesser degree.                   

Release Date: February 19, 2010
Label: Black Bards Entertainment

TRACK LISTING

1.  Fading Tree
2.  Northstar
3.  Winterking
4.  Fortress of Faith
5.  Chants
6.  Dragon's Eyes
7.  Ancient Secrets
8.  Wolkenbruch
9.  Theatre of Battle
10.  Wilderness Lore

Total playing time:  43:23

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Heathen Foray - The Passage