Fearthainne - Self Titled [Glass Throat Recordings - 2008]This self titled album is Fearthainne debut album & it offers up two disc & over two hours worth of earthy, primal & emotional raw forest folk. The four piece project features two members of Ambient/ folk Black Metal project Fauna; & though Fearthainne are purely acoustic based project this does sometimes have the barren & angered spirit of black metal raising in it’s veins. The bands primal sonic focus is sombre yet often quite aggressively strummed acoustic guitars. Earthy, primal, heart beat like percussion, and the odd touches of dulcimer & violin. This simple but effective backing is sang over by low, gravely & ragged yet emotional male vocals that bring to mind either Steve Von Till or Scott Kelly from Neurosis- but there’s also more soulful & more gentle edges to vocals that rises every now & then. There are also the odd hints at sweet, but forlorn folky female backing vocals too on a few occasions; but really it’s the male vocals which are the key focus here. The albums first disc opens up with a brief, but very nice tone setting instrumental piece by Ruhr Hunter entitled ‘Awaken’ which is built around rippling/omnibus gong tones & whispered male vocals which gives the feeling that you entering a ritual for a different place & time; and now you have to clear your mind and respect the forests presence. The rest of the first disc is taken up by two 30 minute plus tracks entitled ‘Fauna’ & ‘The Veil’ ; both tracks slowly but surely weave their barren, earthy, sadly beautiful & sometimes emotional raw spirit around. The band coaxing & easy out simplistic, but emotional & highly atmospheric song craft which pulls you deep into sombre yet powerful feeling of the forests spirit & heart. The second disc offers up another two epic half an hour plus tracks in the form of ‘Unveiled’ & ‘On This Fallen Star’. First up is ‘Unveiled’ which starts off in a dark ‘n’ dust country come American Indian like barren acoustic strums & the gravely male vocals. Later the track has moments of hazy beauty with clean & fresh layers of melodic guitar strums giving the feeling of running through a vast field of long wild grasses. ‘ On This Fallen Star’ returns to more slowed barren rock gone acoustic & dark earthy American folk tones as it slowly opens with deep acoustic pickings, before later become more forceful & up pace with duo of strumed acoustic guitars, nice barren windswept male & female harmonizing. Certainly not an album for everyone because of the tracks lengths & their often barren or stripped tone; but if you enjoy primal, natural spirit lined music you should give this your time & effort to unwrap the deep sombre beauty & emotion with-in these two discs. Roger Batty
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