A full eight years after their last release, The Forty Five, Scotland’s Cnoc An Tursa return with A Cry For The Slain. Described by the band as “an evocative tribute to the history, the folklore, the unique magic of their homeland,” they also state: “With this new album we feel like we are going back to our roots with a more guitar driven style and bringing back some of the folk elements musically and lyrically which was the original inspiration for the band.”
The album begins with “Na Fir Ghorma” – effectively an introduction song, densely atmospheric with picked, hanging guitar notes and mournful vocals building to soaring choral vocals under a chunky riff. This is the perfect lead-in to “The Caoineag.” The Caoineag is a female spirit in Scottish folklore, translating to “weeper” in Scottish Gàidhlig. An invisible spirit, she is said to be heard crying near water. These mournful sounds, known as “keening,” traditionally foretell death and tragedy.
The start of the song is quite the opposite, with furious blast beats and what is more of a war cry than keening lamentations! This track is characterised by soaring lead guitar lines that tap into the well of Scottish folk music and could easily translate to either fiddle or bagpipes. This ends as it begins with furious blast beats which follow on from a hauntingly spoken vocal passage.
“Cailleach And The Guardians Of The Seven Stones” has a grandiose and epic feel, reflective of the myth of the “Cailleach,” the winter goddess and mythical creator of the landscape. With a galloping rhythm, this track also has an energy reflective of the annual tussle that sees the mythical Cailleach’s wintery hold over the land secede to the advance of the goddess Bride and the forthcoming spring. The guitar lead on this track adds melody and a touch of majesty, particularly supporting the pre-chorus chant of “Cailleach”!
You have to feel a bit sorry for Cnoc An Tursa that Hellripper have just released an album that includes a track entitled “Baobhan Sith.” Cnoc An Tursa’s track is a different song to the Hellripper one, but it attests to both bands’ wish to delve into Scottish folklore that both identified the Baobhan Sith – malevolent female spirits who seduce men, dance with them and then consume their blood – as prime subject material for a metal track! Featuring strummed guitars that have an almost mandolin-like feel to them, vocals that range from harsh to hauntingly melodic and an epic soaring guitar solo, this is another track with a truly epic feel.
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Unlike many of the folkloric references on this album which hark back to ancient, mythical origins, experiences of “Am Fear Liath Mòr” – The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdui – can be attested to in more recent times, with hillwalkers and Munro baggers reporting feelings of intense dread, ghostly footsteps behind them and sightings of a large ominous grey figure. The song itself actually lands with a more upbeat feel than the legend – less intense dread, more upbeat bounce that in parts has a really danceable feel that would be fit for a black metal ceilidh!
“Alba In My Heart” is another track that has the feel of a galloping reel – anthemic and uplifting, again with a guitar line that could easily translate to pipes or fiddle. Passionate and anthemic both vocally and musically, the latter half of this track from a half-time breakdown onwards is essentially a soaring, epic instrumental passage.
Inspired by the poetry of Rabbie Burns, “Address To The Devil” has a dissonant blast to begin with, darker in tone than some of the tracks on the album – bleaker and more brooding. This continues with an atmospheric haunting breakdown that subsides to more gentle picked acoustic guitar and melodic vocals. The latter passage of the song returns to a more broodingly intense feel with a melodic tremolo guitar line that continues as the track slowly fades out.
The final track on the album, “The Nine Maidens of Dundee,” is a piano instrumental – a sad and poignant recital, reflective of the tale of the nine farmers’ daughters sent for water to a well of whom none returned. Both striking and haunting, this track acts as an end passage for the album as a whole.
In so many ways Cnoc An Tursa have achieved exactly what they set out to do in this album. Thematically and lyrically they have delved into the depths of Scottish folklore, history and culture and set this against a musical backdrop inspired by traditional Scottish folk music, all within the setting of a broader black metal context. The essential triumph is moulding this range of influences into a coherent whole. Not only have they achieved this, but A Cry For The Slain is a passionate, powerful and at times grandiose body of work that contributes hugely to the burgeoning Scottish metal scene.
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A Cry For The Slain is out today
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