It seems so easy. Take some folk, mix it with some metal, add some tribal-this, some ethno-that, heat until fused and ta-da!–awesomeness.
But as Finntroll, Korpiklaani, Moonsorrow or even the relatively rougher Eluveitie prove in endless genre-mix soufflés, things usually collapse under the weight of whimsy, uneven beauty/beasting, or heavy-pretense (yes, I’m thinking of the new Agalloch‘s tendency to meander, or Swan‘s pointlessly relentless gloom). It’s also easy to imagine an imaginary Metal Dad waving a finger to the stray wussy band: Did you remember to put some metal in your music today? No you did not–bad folk-metal! No sky-cladding for you today!
Maybe it’s 15 years of toil and trouble, maybe it’s just being smart, skilled and inspired, but the Moravian seven-piece Silent Stream of Godless Elegy fall into none of these traps deliciously. Návaz is a one-record study-guide for kids trying to learn the subgenre in garages filled with posters for those other, not-quite-as-good bands, no insult intended. A guide with balls and big-ass guitar-crunch where dulcimers add melancholy and even the violins and violas have a certain edge, playing either literally or metaphorically towards their middle range, towards the parts of the instruments that saw and soar instead of whine and complain.
Male vocals tend towards rich/clean baritones in the Amorphis mode; females from pop-ish noir to dark to semi-operatic. Everything is a good, unexpected deal. “Slava” offer a bonus-pack mix of New Wave-y keyboards, disco beats, and folk viola embroidery. “Skryj hlavu do dlaní” is a metal meditation capped by a small choir not unlike a metal version of Glee‘s New Directions lost in some spiritual dark forest. Of course, even as a nominal American (greetings from New York City!) I have no clue what the band, singing in Czech, is going on about but I rather like it that way. I like their entire raison d’etre misted. Mystery becomes Stream of Godless Elegy.
There’s drama here in spades but not the accidental camp that sinks so many of their peers. Where Nightwish might drag in a choir, Silent Stream‘s vocalists cuddle up to a mic on “Zlatohlav – Golden Head” for intimate, two-part harmonies while the band Sturm und Drangs behind them and when was the last time you heard that?
There’s plenty of pretty here at the same time there’s nothing saccharine, at the same time there’s just the right amount of heavy metal thunder. I usually avoid it like the plague, but Silent Stream of Godless Elegy simply have good taste.
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I thought this was a doom/death band. Weird.
on Jan 3rd, 2011 at 11:06love these guys- had no idea they had a new one out
on Jan 3rd, 2011 at 11:25You’re right, Shane. They were more of a doom/death band on their earlier albums. I have Behind the Shadows and it’s folky doom/death. They must’ve gone full-on folk metal since then. I didn’t even realize they were still around.
on Jan 3rd, 2011 at 11:51My rule of thumb on whether or not a band is doom band with folk elements or a ballsy folk metal band with dark elements is — if you have one song in waltz time with acoustics and violins, two songs intro’ed by violas, and dulcimers all over, I’m gonna bet it’s a folk metal band. :)
on Jan 3rd, 2011 at 12:03Really guys, check this one out–the male-female harmonies alone are worth the money. It’s almost like Rose Kemp is singing with the guy from Amorphis in tight harmony over a for-real metal band.
on Jan 3rd, 2011 at 12:06ha. “pointless gloom” from the Swans, huh?
on Jan 5th, 2011 at 00:52It does get to be a bit much after, like, 25 years, you know?
on Jan 5th, 2011 at 02:02