METSATÖLL — Ulg (review)

METSATÖLL — Ulg album cover Album · 2011 · Folk Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
Heart of war...

Genre: folk metal

Get ready to folk it up with the Metsatöll boys on this album entitled "Ulg" (and I must say, I love the cover art work!!!!) which combines medieval folk music with heavy metal aesthetics. Now, very often, I think that folk metal does not work, but Metsatöll belong to those bands who can create folk metal which works extremely well.

After a quite mellow and pleasant instrumental intro in the form of 'Agu', 'Sõjasüda' kicks in with fast drum beats and dissonant chords, and with its emphasis on repetition and speed, this song basically combines black metal and thrash metal, adding a folksy touch in the form of the vocal patterns. Continuing down the primitive thrash road, 'Küü' starts off combining a simply one chord groovy guitar riff with a folksy melody performed on a type of flute. Perhaps taking the listener by surprise some odd time signature passages pop up, and the remainder of the song goes back and forth between the simple groovy riff and rhythmically more complex odd metered parts, and, combined with the folksy vocals, this dynamics works excellently. 'Muhu õud' has more of a folksy drive to it, and a nice uplifting twangy sound on top of the distorted guitars, and 'Kivine Maa' is more of a traditional heavy metal / hard rock tune (with some nice use of Jew's harpes and other medieval instruments on top of the classic metal riffage). Another noteworthy tune is the rhythmically and slightly progressively oriented oriented metal track 'Kahjakaldad' (one of the best tracks on the album, for my money).

I think that one of the things that make this album work is first of all the balance between variation and coherence. Also, Metsatöll focus primarily on the metal aspect of their music, allowing the rhythm guitar to take the central role in the overall sound of the album, while the folk element primarily consists in the vocal lines and the melodies performed on folk instrumentation (I mist admit that I would have liked some more lead guitar on this album).

Overall, 'Ulg' is a quite good medieval/folk/pagan metal album which manages to draw on different types of heavy metal music, including black metal, thrash metal, and traditional metal to generate a varied, metal-focused folk metal album.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Beyond The Shed Sludge Metal
SINICYST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Being & Nothing EP Sludge Metal
CEREBRAL TOMB
Buy this album from MMA partners
Nothing More Sludge Metal
CALLOUS
Buy this album from MMA partners
From The Bottom Of The Sewers Sludge Metal
DEAF OWL
Buy this album from MMA partners
It Gets Worse Sludge Metal
KULK
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 16 hours ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 16 hours ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 16 hours ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 18 hours ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 1 day ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed