Time Signature Dance of death...

Genre: folk metal

Danish folk metal act Svartsot have, apart from apparently being M1 users (Danes will get the joke), the distinct honor of pretty much spearheading Danish folk metal, and now they are back with their third album.

The overall musicianship is very high and the album is characterized by professionalism, tightness and crisp production. The underlying drive of the music is quite typical of folk metal, and the band successfully integrate the folk and metal elements such that the folk instrumentation and folk melodies never obscure the traditional metal instrumentation of drums, bass and guitars. Most of the tracks are kept quite heavy, but with the typical folksy drive.

This heaviness suits the lyrical content, which deals with the hardships that the people of 14th century Denmark had to endure while the plague raged the country and took many lives. The problem, however, is that, because of this heaviness, the album sort of loses its momentum towards the end, which is a bit of a shame because the individual tunes are quite good.

The vocals are performed in Danish, which is obviously interesting, but the problem is that the vocals are so brutally growled that it is virtually impossible to hear what is being sung, and thus the listener misses out on what the sounds of the danish language might have contributed to the listening experience.

'Maledictus Eris' is a suitably dark folk metal album, which is characterized by professionalism and top notch musicianship, and I am sure that it will appeal to many fans of folk metal.