IN THE LAND OF GHOSTS (2023)
Segunda entrega para esta one man band neozelandesa, que cuenta con Quentin Forster a la batería para este álbum, ofreciendo un sonido mucho más maduro que en su álbum predecesor, al mismo tiempo que sigue inspirándose en historias de las Isla Británicas para ilustrar sus letras. Un álbum que arremete con dos elementos característicos, por un lado el buen trabajo de Quentin a la batería que se muestra intratable en muchas facetas, contundente cunado es necesario y precisa cunado la música se adentra por pasajes más lentos ofreciendo el sustento para que el otro elemento a tener en cuenta, las guitarras, se puedan adentrar por terrenos más atmosféricos dejando de lado las secciones de riffs crudos y fríos presentes en las partes más directas y rápidas de su música. El binomio batería-guitarra se muestra infranqueable ofreciendo una propuesta directa, agresiva, cruda y sin fisuras, capaz también de adentrarse por pasajes más lentos en donde se recrea una atmósfera más de tintes medievales. A todo ellos tenemos que añadir elementos de procedencia folk, fruto del sonido de acordeón, flauta o gaita que aparecen como arreglos en algunos temas, acentuando un carácter pagano en el resultado final del álbum. Las voces se parapetan detrás de un estilo gélido, repleto de gruñidos de ultratumba, desencadenando el caos y planteando un fuerte contraste con todo lo que tenga que ver con algo parecido a la melodía que pude trascender del plano musical. Decíamos antes que la música busca su inspiración en las Isla Británicas, más concretamente este álbum se centra en leyendas de tradición oral, destacable es el perfecto ambiente que logra recrear Olde Throne para que estas leyenda cobren vida en forma de un sonido de black conciso, bien ambientado y que muchas veces recuerda a los clásicos de los noventa. (7,7).
1. House of Dun 07:17
Oh pale lady,
Of the house called Dun
Woeful spirit
Who walks alone
In cold damp earth
Her bones remain
A restless soul
Absent of name
Oh lost harpist
Of stolen song
In the cold of night
Hear his great harp cry
To those who hear
These songs of woe
Be not with fear
Soon he shall go
You’re never alone
Within these walls
In darkness they roam
This house is their home
Beware the horseman
Who roams these roads
The vengeful spirit
Of the House of Dun
2. Skara Brae 05:19
Upon the shores
Of the ancient world
Beyond the ring
In the land of ghosts
The old ones call through time
Under silver stars I hear them call
From lands of myth and kingdoms of stone
For five thousand years they called this home
From times forgotten
And lands untamed
From a bygone world
Their souls remain
By the stones I wait
To hear the old ones speak
Hear the wise ones call
From an ancient world
See the stars
Which they too have seen
Hear their voices
And heed the call
For someday soon
They’ll call you home
3. Isobel 07:02
In the square
They build a pyre
Blackened smoke
Starts to rise
Two hundred thousand women
Sentenced to death
For the crime of being sentient
Doomed by evil men
Isobel
Queen of witches
Your fire burns
Beneath the moon
Black sermons in the kirk
Speaking with the spirits
From human body she transformed
Murdering the men of God
Of these crimes she did confess
And she was never seen again
From the mercy of our god
We sentence you to death
For the saviour of mankind
We burn you at the stake
Two hundred thousand women
Raped and put to death
For fear of magical masses
In the kingdom of God
4. Cliffs of Culzean 06:09
Beneath these walls
Down in the caves
Be ghosts and ghouls
Who haunt Culzean
The piper plays
To prove this false
On sea swept shore
In the howling wind
He makes his way
Into the caves
And the caves soon echo
With the piper’s song
But as the night falls
And the mist comes rolling in
The piper’s song
Begins to fade
And through the years
His song still plays
From the ground below
On Piper’s Brae
5. The Curse of Alloa Tower 01:22
The alleged curse of Alloa Tower placed upon John Erskine, the 17th Earl of Mar, as read by the Abbot of Cambuskenneth:
"Proud Chief o' Mar, thou shalt be raised still higher, until thou sittest in the palace the palace of the king. Thou shalt rule and destroy, and thy work shall be after thy name... Thy work shall be cursed and shall never be finished....
Then, when thou seemest to be highest, when thy power is mightiest, then shall come thy fall; low shall be thy head amongst the noblest of the people.
Deep shall be thy moans among the children of dool.
Thy lands shall be given unto the stranger, and thy titles shall lie among the dead... Thou, proud head and daggered hand, must dree thy weird, until horses be stabled in thy hall, and a weaver shall throw his shuttle in thy chamber of state..."
6. Duntulm 04:43
Duntulm,
A ruin,
Above the sea,
On crumbling cliff
Hugh MacDonald,
Of dark ambition,
Cast to the cells,
Starved to death
From the depths below,
Hear his wails and groans,
In his dungeon tomb,
Where he met his doom
Nursemaid,
Of forgotten name,
Did you know your fate,
When you dropped that bairn
Two lives lost,
From that grave mistake,
Hear their hallowed cries,
Through the castle wind
7. Greyfriars Kirkyard 06:48
Oh, Greyfriars,
Where the Covenanters lay,
Ceased by the black judge,
Cut down by his hand,
A dream of freedom,
To practice what they please,
Doomed by the wicked,
Condemned to brutal fate
And there he lies,
In the black mausoleum,
Awoken by a man,
In need of shelter,
An unhinged evil,
Released upon this earth,
Cold black spirit,
That vengeful entity of hate
Darkness looms,
Upon Greyfriars,
A man turned demon,
An evil unchained
An untold sorrow,
Haunts this place,
Their lives were lived,
While awaiting death
A place where hope,
Has never shined,
They are not gone,
They never died
8. Killiecrankie 05:02
Upon the great pass
Down in the weeping glen
The battle stays and soldiers remain
We had our chance,
for victory or death
We charged forth, and saw the soldiers leap
And they fell
Among the dead
And every year the battle plays
Over and over again
We fight
And history won’t know,
But the wind will remember my name
9. An Torr 04:29
Out from the cold,
Welcomed into our home,
We saw that they were fed,
But soon we would be dead
Cold, the wind in the pine,
Cast out with nowhere to go,
The heart of the earth's turned stone,
There's blood in the River Coe
Put all to the sword
Out from the night,
We offered our homestead,
Some fled through the snow,
While some, cut down in their beds,
* "Cruel is the snow that sweeps Glencoe,
And covers the grave O' Donald,
Cruel was the foe that raped Glencoe,
And murdered the house O' MacDonald"
48:11
First regular edition 12" LP, black vinyl, single jacket, and printed inner sleeve.
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