Label: Castellum Stoufenburc – CS 03-12
Format: CDr, Mini-Album, Reissue, Limited Edition
Country: Germany
Released: 22 Nov 2012
Genre: Rock
Style: Neofolk
Tracklist
1 Flash Of The Blade 3:20
2 Crusader 4:42
3 Hail & Kill 4:24
4 Master Of Revenge 1:27
5 Black Wind, Fire & Steel 4:12
6 Mountains 4:02
7 The Duellists 7:26
8 Warrior-Throw Down The Sword 4:34
9 Battle Hymn 6:44
Notes
A collection of covers. Track 1 & 7 originally by Iron Maiden. Track 2 by Saxon. Track 3, 4, 5, 6 & 9 by Manowar. Track 8 by Wishbone Ash.
Re-released edition is limited to 100 copies and includes a button.
29th January 2012
The Day of The Antler – A Call To Greatness
Written by: S. Hache
Humanity’s greatest moments of disgrace and honour manifest at the height of battle. Savagery and violence clash with a raging fury of emotion. Steadfast and terrifying, it is a timeless endeavour, and as long as humans conflict with one another there will be bloodshed. Nothing else in our collective nature is as potent with suffering and horror; and in turn, nothing else has been as celebrated in word, song, and art as the act of war! Post-industrial culture and music is no stranger to this power: military fetishism, glorification of modern warfare, sampling of WWI/ II battles and speeches – we are well versed in this historical aura. Brutal genres call for brutal material! On this note, martial themes have been ammunition for heavy metal since its inception, and almost as much glorification can be found in this equally unique culture and sound. Is it a coincidence that the two most “extreme” genres revel in this side of mankind in very similar ways? Absolutely not! Metal and post-industrial folk are inextricably linked on a level that most do not give credence to. How many neofolk artists also have a boot in the heavy metal camp? OTWATM, Allerseelen, Waldteufel, King Dude – this should come as no surprise! It is this battlefield that The Day of The Antler present on their inaugural album A Call To Greatness – where the forces of metal and neofolk meet as warriors on a bloodstained plain, heralding the deeds of ancient warfare.
At the simplest description, The Day of The Antler creates neofolk honouring the spirit of old battle-themed heavy metal songs from the 1980’s. This brand of heavy metal is instantly identifiable by its signature overt masculinity and unapologetic, cheesy nature. However, it is that which almost borders on the silly that is so attractive about these battle-hymns. Loin cloths, motorcycles, medieval warfare and all! Some falsetto, a broad sword, and your warbrothers at your side! Often it is hard to distinguish between what is serious and what should be farce. How do you reconcile this teenage fantasy fodder with the all-too- humourless neofolk genre? This alone should spark some kind of interest. Sounds like a good gimmick right? At least A Call To Greatness must warrant a listen for the novelty of it. As a fan of both styles of music, this thought ran through my head as I saw song titles from Manowar, Iron Maiden, and Saxon – 3 of the quintessential “warriors of metal”. Upon first listen I was shocked at how well these original songs translate to this style. Certainly this is no mere cover album, but a necessary revision of songs that come off as little more than fluff in their original context. The battle has shifted tides and The Day of The Antler has reclaimed victory!
The same feeling of bombastic heroism runs through these reiterated songs, and in fact ignites a new flame under them. New meaning and significance awakens in bluntly unambiguous lines like “Power and dominion are taken by the will/By divine right hail and kill”. Issues of power, subservience, and the natural order have always been contended in the poetry of post-industrial culture, and these songs function like a delineated, focussed battle-call. This stoic presentation adds even more power and fear to these songs, especially in some of the more so-over-the-top-that-it’s-comical lines of violence and cold-hearted brutality: “Rip their flesh, Burn their hearts, Stab them in their eyes. Rape their women as they cry. Kill their servants, Burn their homes, Till there’s no blood left to spill.” Originally contextualized as mindless anthems by the shirtless wannabe-barbarians in Manowar, songs like Hail & Kill are easy to shrug off in their original forms because of the flamboyance and border-line silliness. When The Day of The Antler dictates these lines with a baritone-backed scour it is hard to ignore the savagery inherent within. This is how our ancestors lived and died in a moment of history, and the reality is far more biting! Martial percussion, twangy acoustic guitars, and other expected atmospheric instrumentation provide the soundtrack to these narratives – there are no surprises here musically, and the storytelling takes total primacy. A vocally impressive delivery retells these tales while images of Conan the Barbarian, Viking plunders, and Dark Age violence run wild against structured aural militancy. Reinterpreted, any fantasy once present is discarded to make room for glaring veracity.
Despite an obvious tendency to want to write this off as an experiment in novelty, admittedly A Call To Greatness deserves credit as a potent recreation. The older spirit of metal cheesiness is hard to ignore on some of these songs (especially if you are intimately familiar with the original versions!), but new listeners and post-industrial purists will find a lot of value in the cold brutality of the delivery. Likewise, metal fans will enjoy a fresh take on the heavy metal gods and perhaps this is the necessary gateway between the two genres. It has always been in this scribes opinion that there is a logical path from harsh metal to neofolk, as many have walked this very path – The Day of The Antler proves this point while flying their banner on both sides of the line of battle.
Rating: 4/5
http://heathenharvest.org/2012/01/29/the-day-of-the-antler-a-call-to-greatness/
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