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Blood Of The Black Owl - A Feral Spirit [Brindrune Recordings - 2008]

A Feral Spirit is the second chapter in Chet Scott’s (of Ruhr Hunter, Elemental Chrysalis and Glass throat records) metallic folk/rock project. It sees him building on and adding to the elements from the wonderful self titled Blood of the Black Owl from 07. Through out the nine tracks on offer here we find an more tribal tone and world music & atmospheric edge elements been mixed in.

Things start off wonderful brooding and un-metallic with the track Spell of the Elk; which is built around slow ominous Native American Indian percussion, native Indian flute, field recordings and Chet’s gravely and haunted tone. Really it’s a goose-bump inducing opener that sets you down in the vast plans and rain drenched forest of  a Native American tribe before the Whiteman arrived. By track two Crippling Of Age - the metallic violent air kicks in  big time with a wonderful barbaric and dense mid-pace riff battering, it's stop briefly for an enchanted acoustic refrain before slamming back in with grim earthy metallic power.  And that’s really how the rest of  the album works; balancing atmosphere and brutally wonderfully, but with really depth and conviction of sound and belief. 

Through really the album is error-less and engaging through-out it’s hour plus playing time- a few stand-out moments come in the form of : the bright, yet haunted and harmonic clean guitar pickings, piping flute and raising organ atmospherics of The Melancholy Article with Chet offering a gravely yet passionate vocal uttering’s on top about the destruction of the native American lands. Unattainable Vistas Of Our Remembrances with its cold grim and fuzzed blues tinged guitar opening, which launchers in brutally chugging riff matter that feels like Chet has harnessed the grim sprit of the forest in his guitar. The rest of the tracks swings wonderful between atmospheric and brutal riff forest bludgeoning. And as always with anything involving Mr Scott there’s an impressive and exotic array of instrumental colour and shade for A Feral Spirit he users the following: Organs, Crow & Condor Totem Native Flutes, Wood & Clay Ocarinas, V-Drums, Ritual Hand Percussion, Thunder Gong, Long Horns, Ritual Goat Hoof Shaker & Stag Antler Rattle, Environmental & Totem Spirit Recordings


A superbly solid, consistent and wonderful worked second album from the project which balances haunting beauty, wonderful divined atmospherics, compositionally depth & invention with brutal and crushing riff weight. Simply put another masterpiece from Mr Scott.

Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5

Roger Batty
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