By Jonny Bakes
There’s something about Canada at the moment that is resulting in some pretty epic sounding metal becoming a national export. Perhaps it’s the combination of stark mountains and sprawling forests that breeds creativity, or maybe there’s just something in the Tim Horton’s coffee. Regardless of the reason, some of the bands to emerge out of Canada in recent years really do rival those in the well established European metal scene. So when a new Canadian folk metal EP dropped into the ÜRHQ inbox, I simply had to measure it up against the likes of Eluveitie and my other favourite Euro equivalents!
Forsaken Rite, hailing from Edmonton, AB, just a stone’s throw from the Canadian Rockies (if you can throw a stone really far) have been wowing local audiences since 2012. In 2017 they unleashed their first full-length album of epic voyages with ‘The Northern Saga’ but now their war party sets their sights in a different direction to continue this adventure as they voyage to ‘The Forgotten West’. Drawing inspiration from their surroundings, this band creates music that captures the very essence of the wilderness with its beauty and brutality combined into epic folk metal. There’s liberal use of folk instruments to partner with gruff growls and beautiful female vocals which is something that fans of Eluveitie will be very familiar with!
‘The Forgotten West’ starts out with a gentle pipe melody before launching into a raucous combination of guitars, drums and accordion drawing some similarities to Korpiklaani. But unlike Korp, the story here is more serious, as Forsaken Rite weaves a tale of leaving a settled life to head West in search of safe and plentiful lands. I wonder if this is in some way inspired by the classic Canadian folk song ‘Northwest Passage’ (practically Canada’s second national anthem) which has a very similar theme of leaving safety to take the treacherous journey west. The verses utilize the soft vocals of Ursa to portray the gentler part of this story, which is contrasted beautifully by the gruff growls of Emrys Faol to give that Beauty and the Beast effect that metal fans the world over know and love.
Each track on the EP flows into the next to lay out the story of the war party’s voyage west and the challenges that they face along this journey. The whole composition becomes an epic piece of music that has highs and lows as the adventure progresses and works best when listened through in order. My personal favourite track on this EP though has to be ‘Fire Circle’ which takes the form of a jovial celebration. The sound of the accordion and the upbeat melody it portrays invokes images of drunken revelry around the firepit bringing an element of light after the previous track, ‘The Storm’. ‘Fire Circle’ is a song of reflection on the challenges that have been faced by the warparty to this point and engaging in celebrated remembrance of those who have been lost along the way.
‘The Forgotten West’ is a great example of epic folk metal that captures the wild and unforgiving nature of some of the deeper parts of Canada. This continuation of the adventures from 2017’s ‘The Northern Saga’ will easily appeal to fans of folk metal with the similarities to Eluveitie being hard to ignore. Not that there’s anything wrong with this, the Eluveitie formula is fantastic and if you can produce something similar whilst remaining true to your own cultural roots, then have at it!
It may have been my first exposure to Forsaken Rite but it certainly won’t be my last and I’ll be keeping an eye out to see if the band ventures out of Canada to hit the shores of the ÜK, and if that doesn’t happen then I have no problems returning to Canada for another adventure of my own!
- ‘The Forgotten West’ is out now.
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