Fearthainne — Self Titled
The bands primal sonic focus is sombre yet often quite aggressively strummed acoustic guitars. Earthy, primal, heart beat like percussion, and the odd touches of dulcimer & violin. This simple but effective backing is sang over by low, gravely & ragged yet emotional male vocals that bring to mind either Steve Von Till or Scott Kelly from Neurosis- but there’s also more soulful & more gentle edges to vocals that rises every now & then. There are also the odd hints at sweet, but forlorn folky female backing vocals too on a few occasions; but really it’s the male vocals which are the key focus here.
The albums first disc opens up with a brief, but very nice tone setting instrumental piece by Ruhr Hunter entitled ‘Awaken’ which is built around rippling/omnibus gong tones & whispered male vocals which gives the feeling that you entering a ritual for a different place & time; and now you have to clear your mind and respect the forests presence. The rest of the first disc is taken up by two 30 minute plus tracks entitled ‘Fauna’ & ‘The Veil’ ; both tracks slowly but surely weave their barren, earthy, sadly beautiful & sometimes emotional raw spirit around. The band coaxing & easy out simplistic, but emotional & highly atmospheric song craft which pulls you deep into sombre yet powerful feeling of the forests spirit & heart.
The second disc offers up another two epic half an hour plus tracks in the form of ‘Unveiled’ & ‘On This Fallen Star’. First up is ‘Unveiled’ which starts off in a dark ‘n’ dust country come American Indian like barren acoustic strums & the gravely male vocals. Later the track has moments of hazy beauty with clean & fresh layers of melodic guitar strums giving the feeling of running through a vast field of long wild grasses. ‘ On This Fallen Star’ returns to more slowed barren rock gone acoustic & dark earthy American folk tones as it slowly opens with deep acoustic pickings, before later become more forceful & up pace with duo of strumed acoustic guitars, nice barren windswept male & female harmonizing.
Certainly not an album for everyone because of the tracks lengths & their often barren or stripped tone; but if you enjoy primal, natural spirit lined music you should give this your time & effort to unwrap the deep sombre beauty & emotion with-in these two discs.