By Jonny Bakes
Flicking through some of the press releases for upcoming albums, I came across one that listed a few fun facts about the band. Intrigued, I decided to read through the list to see what the facts were, and lo and behold something caught my attention. “Often at shows and in music videos they have ‘beer maidens’… who come out on stage and pour willing audience members beer from a sacred Viking horn.” Well, this sounds exactly like my kind of thing, it looks like we’re in for some folk metal with a new release from Toronto’s Protokult!
Protokult generally sit on the heavier end of the folk metal scale and have done since their 2009 debut ‘Ancestral Anthems’ and this latest effort ‘Transcending The Ruins’ is no different. It’ a pretty unrelenting beast that brings in elements of the more extreme metal genres to combine with the folk metal sound and themes to give a force to be reckoned with. There’s elements of thrash, death and power metal all scattered throughout the album, and even some turns towards the really dark with a blackened sound at times too. If you think that all folk metal should be overtly jolly and gentle, let Protokult prove you wrong! Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a good healthy dose of booze-fueled joviality, but it’s balanced out by some serious shredding and some particularly brutal growls.
There’s a distinct beauty and the beast vibe coming from the vocals too. While there’s buckets of aggression and guttural growls coming from Martin Drozd, these are completely contrasted by the haunting vocals of Ekaterina which verge on operatic. Often this is used in a call-and-response style (which can often feel overused), but not here. Instead each vocal style has its specific place in songs, with some songs focusing heavily on one or the other. This is all supported by a decent amount of gang vocals to give a raucous drunken singalong fell at just the right moments.
‘1516 (Keeper of the Hops)’ is an eclectic mix of punk, power metal and folk elements. In case you hadn’t guessed by the title, this song is all about beer and specifically the all-important 1516 beer purity law in Bavaria. It’s pretty convenient timing that this album is released at the tail end of Oktoberfest celebrations really, as this is a far better alternative to the standard “oompah” fayre that you normally get. This will definitely go well with the crate of German beers that I ordered for the weekend, that’s for sure.
There’s a bit of an eclectic mix in ‘Valley of Thorns’ though. This starts out with a roaring blast beat that gives way to a distinctive blackened metal sound complete with harsh vocals. But then suddenly there’s an appearance from Ekaterina who completely counteracts this with her vocals. If you were to catch this song in isolation, you could probably be forgiven for not picking up that it’s a folk metal band. That is, of course, until about halfway through the track where we’re treated to an circus-like instrumental interlude but this is the only hint of folk on this track!
Overall, though, ‘Transcending The Ruins’ is a folk metal album for those who like a bit of variety in their lives too. Easily something here for fans of Turisas, Nightwish and Korpiklaani among many others. If, like me, your taste spans a wide range of genres then you’ll probably find that this album would suit any number of your musical moods. I think this works better as an album that’s listened through from start to finish, but the tracks do stand up just as well on their own too. I’ll certainly be listening to this again, and I recommend you give it a go too.
- ‘Transcending The Ruins’ is released today (Thursday 1 October). You can get your copy HERE.
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